A Not So Great Mafia Film

Rating: 5/10 (18 August 2010)

Donnie Brasco stars Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, and Michael Madsen and takes place in 1978 New York and would be categorized under the Mafia genre.
The film is about an undercover cop, played by Depp, and his work taking out the Mafia in New York. The film starts out with Donnie Brasco (Depp) at a jeweler and how he is looking at a made man in the mafia, Lefty (Pacino), and Lefty takes him under his wing after one meeting and no background info on Brasco. Brasco then becomes Lefty's right hand man and the two of the work under Sonny Black (Madsen) and do all the usual mafia things. The main struggle of the film is how Brasco has to keep in his undercover while having a family at home and he grows very attached to Lefty as well. This film is a Mafia film with a stronger police part than in other Mafia films such as The Godfather or Goodfellas which is what makes it unique.
The Directing in this film was poor for two main reasons. Reason #1 is that as a viewer I felt no attachment to any of the characters. I never cared that Donnie Brasco's normal life was falling apart due to his career, I never cared that his life was in danger due to his career, I never really cared about his career. Nor did I care about how Lefty wasn't being taken seriously anymore and was passed up for promotion. Reason #2 why I thought the direction was poor is because these men are in the Mafia they are powerful men and the direction did nothing to show that it just made them look like a normal person which in my opinion was a mistake. If this movie was better directed it could of easily been considered a great film.
The acting in this film was decent, the best performance being by Depp. This is his biggest early role in his career that he did not work with Tim Burton and he proved here he can act well without being such an odd character which I truly enjoyed. But again as I said in the previous paragraph I felt no connection to him which is not entirely his fault but still. Pacino I thought was not very good in this film he always seemed on the same emotional level and just was sad, really I thought nothing special. Madsen I thought was very good in this film as Sonny Black. He did great portraying himself as a tough, impulsive Mafia boss and every time he was on the screen was extremely enjoyable. Now was he as good as he was in Reservoir Dogs, no. But still he is an actor that I wish I could see more of.
The score of this film I thought was inappropriate. It sounded like music that would be used in a drama, not a Mafia film and this often distracted me and annoyed me. I really thought this was a mistake.
My overall reaction to this film is that it is not very good, a strong 5/10 I would say. It had potential to be much better in my opinion. I'm not going to tell you to stay away from this film because it is pretty well reviewed I would recommend this film to those who enjoy Mafia films, just go in knowing that this is no Goodfellas or The Godfather.