Donnie Brasco was based on a true-story book by Joe Pistone, an undercover FBI man whose infiltration into the New York mob scene led to scores of arrests … and virtually no reward for himself personally. The heart of the film juxtaposes Pistone's thriving undercover life with his floundering "real" life. He's a hell of a goodfella, but not so good a husband or father. As Pistone (Depp) gets deeper and deeper into the made-man lifestyle, the lines get blurred in terms of his intentions; what begins as a way to build a career and support his family rapidly becomes a morally ambiguous netherworld in which it's never clear that he's the good guy anymore. Depp is terrific all the way through, as is Pacino in one of his only performances that one might call heartbreaking. The cast (fleshed out by Michael Madsen, Anne Heche, Bruno Kirby, and, in very small but excellent roles, Paul Giamatti and Zeljko Ivanek) is uniformly great, and the suspense is sustained perfectly. The film dawdles a bit in the last half, and the direction waffles between Scorcese and Lifetime Original Movies™, but it ends up resolving almost like Prince of the City, which is admirable for any movie past 1981. Over time, I think Donnie Brasco will look better and better. The terrain has been mined many times before and since, but you will rarely find a Mob movie with such full-flesh heart.
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