Not Pacino's best performance - but damn close.

Rating: 10/10 (15 February 2013)

Another reviewer has said it is Pacino's best. I can understand why. Here he turns down the volume and we can hear every note. Its a beautiful, subtle performance.
I feel sorry for Depp. In any other film with any other actor it would've been his film but unfortunately Pacino steals every scene his in.
Lefty (Pacino) is a small-time hood forever being passed over. Donnie Brasco (Depp) is the undercover FBI agent who Pacino befriends and vouches for to his ultimate doom. Every scene with Pacino in should be watched by every aspiring film actor (and most established ones!) to see how its done. If this sounds like a love-letter to Pacino at the expense of the rest of the cast well it is. And the supporting cast are perfect as well - Heche as Brasco's suffering wife, Madsen as Pacino's boss, Bruno Kirby as one of the gang. I could list every one.
Also credit must go to the director Mike Newell for making me forgive him for Hugh Grant's career with this film.
Some people say this is too similar to "Goodfellas" and indeed the release was delayed and the casting changed due to that Scorsese classic. But I say "Donnie Brasco" is the anti-Goodfellas - the wiseguys here are a bit too low rent/nickel and dime. And Pacino gives us the anti-Godfather. And when films are this good there's room for both in this world.