Donnie Brasco (1997)

Donnie Brasco a.k.a FBI Special Agent Joe Pistone (Johnny Depp) has infiltrates the mob thanks to his budding friendship with Lefty (Al Pacino). He is quickly catapulted to the upper echelon within the Mafia family thanks to Lefty's mentorship. Their father-son relationship soon becomes an issue as Donnie's double life begins to take a tole on him. Disturbed that he is losing his family and his mind, Donnie hesitates to pull out because of his admiration for Lefty. Faced with the ultimate choice, Donnie discovers it's not even his to make.

Mafia movies are lost on me. I've seen a couple, by proxy, but given the choice this genre isn't my thing. Although the themes of Donnie Brasco transcend the genre, I wasn't able to truly react with this one. There is decent story-telling with a strong cast, but Donnie Brasco fails, for me, on some level. It was tedious and non-descript. The plot was accelerated, even in the two hour time frame, and created a ludicrous change of events. There are too many implausible WTF?! moments to stay plugged in. Truth be told, I started noticing goods--like the windshield wipers, hair that mysteriously styles itself, and magical gold chains that appear and disappear.

The cast is solid. Playing the low-key mutt, Lefty, Pacino is a spit-fire, but not the caricature he has since become. Johnny Depp sets well as does the underrated Michael Madsen. Anne Heche has a good turn as Pistone's long-suffering wife. Unfortunately, they all suffer from a languishing script.

I'm intrigued that the story is based on true events. Even more so, if as the screen crawl states the actual Joe Pistone still has a bounty of half a mil on his head and is living under an assumed name.

Donnie Brasco is as average a movie as they come. Watch if you're a fan of the genre, I wouldn't bother otherwise.