Astounding and different

Rating: 10/10 (10 June 2006)

I sat down to watch "Donnie Brasco" with the idea of a typical mafia movie in mind. When the movies was over, I decided that it wasn't exactly what you would label as, "A typical mafia movie," because there is a whole side of the movie that involves, more than any Mafia movie does, a lot of sentimentality.
The plot is pretty basic and it is based on a true story. It's about an undercover agent for the FBI, Donnie Brasco, who joins the mafia in order to find information about it and completely infiltrate it. (Johnny Depp plays the undercover agent.) Donnie is practically adopted by Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino), who is a lower-class Mafia man. Lefty guides Donnie through the New York gangster scene and they develop a very strong relationship. But as Donnie loses himself in his job, he becomes distant to his wife and kids. (The wife is played by Anne Heche). This causes problems with the family. Donnie turns into a confused, guilty, lost man as he goes on to mix his professional and personal life up and create one hell of a mess.
The story itself, I found very interesting. Then there's the perfectly chosen cast.
Quite frankly, there's nothing negative I can say about either Johnny Depp or Al Pacino in this movie. I've already decided that Johnny Depp is a generally a splendid actor (though a little too underplayed/subtle if that makes any sense at all), but I think that he did an exceptionally good job on this movie. I don't recall ever seeing him in a gangster movie, but he was in this one and he really captured the role and created a masterpiece of a character.
As for Al Pacino, he is most definitely on my Top 10 list of favorite actors, no doubt about that. And this movie only makes me think even more of him, so you can imagine how good he was. After having seen Donnie Brasco, I thought for the 100th time to myself, "Al is untouchable." The way he talks, walks, acts, laughs and moves with the other actors is simply astounding. He really makes you feel for him, which he hadn't been able to do since his classic performance in the "Godfather Pt. II".
Then comes Anne Heche. She used to be very popular around the '90s, and I was wondering what had happened to her. Well, now I know what happened to her. People got sick of Anne Heche. Her roles are never exceptionally challenging, and although she played a very believable role in this movie, her character wasn't a very powerful one. Many would disagree with me, but the whole concept of a wife scolding her husband every two scenes simply bored me and therefore the character became banal in my eyes. So although Heche did a good job in playing Donnie's wife, I'm not going to give her a standing ovation because she mostly annoyed me.
All in all, I would probably give this movie a 10/10.