Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

Johnny Depp plays neither a boy with scissors for hands or a drunken pirate… or a mad hatter or a Demon Barber. In fact it’s a rare thing for me to catch him out of a “character” and was I mad? Forget about it.

Donnie Brasco (Johnny Depp) doesn’t exist. He’s an undercover FBI agent sent to infiltrate and take down the New York Mafia.

Slowly but surely Donnie begins to rise through the ranks. Trusted by his criminal comrades Donnie is caught between a rock and a hard place; do assignments that go against the law he swore to uphold, or defy them and expose himself as the rat he is.

Unfortunately as he digs himself in deeper, Donnie sees no way out – at least none that won’t be fatal for Lefty (Al Pacino), the mark turned friend who brought him into the fold.

I admit that for the first half hour I was a little bored. I know this is the time that the story was building and all the characters were being outlined… but I was still bored.

Overall though Donnie Brasco was an interesting enough movie. I was surprised that it didn’t feature a lot of the gory Mafia stereotypes that one is used to seeing from the likes of Scorsese and Coppola.

Based on a true story, it made the ending a lot more emotionally impactful as we saw the realities of both Donnie and Lefty’s lives simultaneously collide and diverge.

So I watched this movie because on a Twitter thread it kept coming up as one of Johnny Depp’s best roles. I don’t know about best (mostly because I can’t be bothered to think back to all the movies I’ve seen him in to identify my favourite) but he was good.

As far as recommending this movie; I wouldn’t if someone wanted to watch a Gangster movie, but would if someone just wanted to see Depp’s range as an actor.