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Created Dec 19, 2009 06:41PM PST • Edited Aug 08, 2022 02:16PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   A must-see for Mafia movie aficionados, Donnie Brasco serves a potent brew of stellar acting, led by Al Pacino and Johnny Depp in a surrogate paternal relationship. The fact that it’s “based on a true story” makes it societally important.

   Donnie Brasco (great name, that) misses perfection due to its relative lack of transcendence vis-à-vis the preceding Goodfellas and Godfathers, notwithstanding that their earlier arrivals tilted the playing-field. OTOH, the real Donnie Brasco hit the streets of New York and Miami just four years after The Godfather hit the silver-screen, giving this movie a street cred Coppola’s magnum opus lacks.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Pacino and Depp conduct a wiseguy acting clinic here. Fergeddaboudid! Mafia acting gets no better.

   For Pacino, the shoe’s on the other foot from Serpico, his other memorable undercover movie. Now he’s the one getting played. In a career of indelible performances, his Lefty – the loyal but bitter Mafia soldier – is in the Pacino pantheon.

   For Depp, this was perhaps his first opportunity to go toe-to-toe with a legendary actor. Thus it’s hugely satisfying to see the now legendary younger actor together with Pacino in most of the movie’s scenes.

   Ann Heche is Depp’s other key acting partner in the movie. Notwithstanding that she doesn’t look like she could have birthed his dark haired Italian children, her performance is rich: smart, earthy, sexy. Plus, after having played the wife of such a macho character, who can blame her for turning gay. ;-)

   The rest of the mafiosi are nearly as strong as in Goodfellas. Michael Madsen and Bruno Kirby are particular standouts.

   A couple of actors who went on to bigger things play bit parts, including Zeljko Ivanek (24 and many other TV shows) and Paul Giamatti (Hollywood’s most unlikely leading man).

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Virtually flawless, this richly evocative film about a quintessentially American milieu was directed by Mike Newell, a Brit. Cheers mate.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music Really Great 4.5

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.0

    F-bombs galore, women disrespected, and one particularly savage group execution – including the “clean up” afterward – make this a truly sordid movie.

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

18. Violence Savage 3.7

19. Rudeness Profane 3.5

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    FBI agent Joseph Pistone – a.k.a. Donnie Brasco – really did infiltrate the New York Mafia for six years, resulting in over 100 convictions of Mafia members, a book and this movie. The man’s a hero.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.5

    The movie apparently merged characters, invented dialog and otherwise improved on reality. As always, “based on a true story” means it’s not an entirely true story.

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0