Donnie Brasco Top Ten List: #7 of 1997
Director: Mike Newell. Cast: Johnny Depp, Al Pacino, Michael Madsen, Anne Heche, Bruno Kirby, James
Russo, Robert Miano. Screenplay: Paul Attanasio (based on the book Donnie Brasco: My Life
Undercover in the Mafia by Joseph D. Pistone and Richard Woodley).
Another gangster movie…from the director of Enchanted April? Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised
that Donnie Brasco works so marvelously, since Newell has seemed distinctly uncomfortable in
lighter fare like April or Four Weddings and a Funeral, stiff and uneven films that
nonetheless made his reputation. Newell directs Donnie Brasco in a style I would call operatic, if
I knew anything about opera. What I mean is, he finds room in his story for a full range of human
emotions—anxieties, sorrows, convictions, and ecstasies—and compacts them all in a genre that too often
bores us because emotions are tossed in favor of cool-guy posturing. Together with Face/Off, Titanic, and L.A. Confidential, this movie proved in 1997 that mainstream filmmaking can
range fully across the emotional spectrum and not only remain entertaining, but become even more so by
virtue of its humane artistry. Al Pacino surfaces, at least temporarily, from his recent pool of sludgy
overacting and gives one of the year's most forceful portraits. His Lefty has a nasty cough, but pushing
aside medicine and looking at his spirit, what the guy really suffers from is heart disease. Pacino makes
a riveting spectacle of someone who's just not feeling in the game anymore, but doesn't want the game to
go downhill without him, and can't play anything else anyway. Johnny Depp is also fantastic, but the poor
guy seems destined to live without the respect he deserves. Maybe it's the name.
Not yet reviewed in full. A
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Attanasio
Other Awards:
Boston Society of Film Critics: Best Actor (Pacino)
National Board of Review: Best Supporting Actress (Heche; also cited for Wag the Dog)