Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Mike Newell
Stars: Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madsen, Bruno Kirby, Anne Heche, James Russo
Running time: 126 minutes.
Proving once again that truth is often stranger than fiction, Donnie Brasco tells the story of an idealistic young FBI agent who spent three years undercover with the mob in order to gain evidence on their activities. In 1978, FBI agent Joe Pistone (Johnny Depp) assumed the alias of a small time thief and jewel fence, Donnie Brasco, and developed a friendship and bond of trust with small time gangster and ageing enforcer Lefty Ruggerio (Al Pacino), thus gaining admission into the New York underworld.
As Brasco, Pistone lived a dangerous double existence, walking a fine tightrope where one false move could prove fatal. Donnie’s tenuous situation was made even more dangerous when an uncaring superior from Washington “suggests” that he help encourage the mob to move into the untapped potential of Florida in order to provide a veneer of respectability and credibility for another of the Bureau’s assets. Ruggerio and Brasco developed a close relationship of trust and friendship, and inevitably the undercover agent grew too close to the killer, seemingly losing his dispassionate and objective viewpoint at times. The assignment eventually took its toll on him as he slowly became more like the gangsters he worked with, and he was even forced to participate in the occasional gangland killing to maintain his cover. But his involvement with this criminal family and their own codes of loyalty and honour ironically drove him further away from his own family, as his wife felt the need to distance herself from him to protect her sanity and their children from possible danger.
Writer Paul Attanasio (Quiz Show and Disclosure has crafted an intelligent and strangely insightful script that brings this shadowy and unfamiliar world to light in sharp, economical terms without unnecessarily belabouring the obvious brutalities. There are a few strong and gruesome moments that effectively reveal the full impact of some of the things Pistone was forced to do to protect his identity. Attanasio skilfully reveals how Pistone’s personal life suffered and was irrevocably altered due to the stress of living a double life, all for some token acknowledgement of gratitude and meagre reward from a barely grateful Bureau. The real Pistone is apparently still living under an assumed name in an undisclosed location, with a $500,000 mob contract on his head!
Donnie Brasco is somewhat unusual and tougher material for British director Mike Newell, best known for Four Weddings And A Funeral and a series of light romantic period dramas. As an outsider looking in, Newell provides a fresh perspective on familiar territory that lately has become the preserve of Scorsese, and he essentially strips away the glamour from the violence and honourable codes of the gangsters, calling into question much of the romantic, mythical view of the Mafia and its activities largely shaped by Coppola and his ilk. The mobsters here are not the powerful Mafia chieftains of Coppola’s epic Godfather trilogy, nor are they the brutal, amoral hoods of Scorsese’s violent Goodfellas, but rather they are the street wise hoods and enforcers who run the small time operations from corner bars and perform the necessary dirty work. Donnie Brasco is like Goodfellas on valium, but the film still provides a fascinating insight into the strong codes of loyalty, honour and bloody retribution of the mob. Implicitly, Attanasio’s clever script also draws parallels between the shadowy mob world and its codes and the more pragmatic world of law enforcement, where the means certainly seem to justify the ends.
Newell has assembled a strong cast to bring to life this fascinating story, and both Pacino and Depp work well together, establishing a credible rapport that gives the relationship between the cynical, lower echelon gangster and the reluctant FBI mole strength, credibility and poignant undertones. Pacino’s performance is more restrained and less showy than usual, and he gives a more intelligent and passionate characterisation of a small time hood who lacks real power and is aware that he has been passed over in the chain of command. There is something almost tragic in his portrayal of this ageing, trusting and vulnerable mobster who finds a devoted and earnest young protégé in Brasco, unaware that it is a friendship that will ultimately cost him his life. Depp is one of the best actors of his generation, and his strong and complex performance as the dedicated young cop forced to live a double life and protect his identity whilst dealing with internal Bureau politics gives the material much of its strength and depth, and ranks as one of his finer screen characterisations.
As Pistone’s long suffering wife Maggie, Anne Heche (from The Juror, and the forthcoming disaster flick Volcano) is compelling and credible. In a more restrained performance than normal, Michael Madsen is quite charismatic as Lefty’s boss Sonny Black, an ambitious and intuitively cunning hood, while Bruno Kirby (The Godfather Part II, etc) is memorable as the sleazy, quick talking hustler Nicky.
The impressive evocation and recreation of period detail rings true. Donnie Brasco is a powerful, occasionally brutal tale that is even more stunning because much of it is true!
★★★☆
