Donnie Brasco (1997) * * *

Directed by:  Mike Newell

Starring:  Johnny Depp, Al Pacino, Anne Heche, Michael Madsen, Zeljko Ivanek

For FBI agent Joseph Pistone, life as low-level mobster Donnie Brasco wears on him.   It isn't the lack of contact with his wife and kids for weeks or months at a time that troubles him as much as he must eventually break the heart and trust of the man he befriended in order to infiltrate the mob.  The man Pistone uses to gain access to a New York crime family is Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero (Pacino), a hard-working mid-level mafia lifer who lives in a dingy apartment with his drug-addicted son and his beloved wife.   He has killed twenty-six people at the behest of his superiors, but frets because he will never be promoted beyond what he is.   The mob, like anything else, has a hierarchy in which even the bosses must kick $50,000 a month upstairs to his boss or face dire consequences.   Everyone answers to someone, much like a regular job.

One of the strengths of Donnie Brasco is how it breaks the Mafia down into an organizational structure based on profits, losses, and blood.   Mobsters don't get fired for failing to make payments or if a business goes belly-up, they get whacked.    A mob family is a corporation without the legal filings, and every bit as heartless.   Pistone/Brasco (Depp) infiltrates this family and wins Ruggiero's trust, but then must realize one day he will have to betray the man who has essentially laid his life on the line vouching for him.   His wife Maggie (Heche) treats Joe like he's dead in order to make it through each day.   His kids only see him rarely and have no idea what he does for a living.   Even Pistone's bosses aren't much sympathetic.   They keep Pistone in there until he's swallowed up and not much use to them anymore.

At the heart of Donnie Brasco is the friendship between Donnie and Lefty which is based on deception.  Lefty, the mobster, is 100% percent honest and forthright.   He grows to love the younger Donnie like another son, while Donnie must keep his secret in order for he and Lefty not to be killed.   Many of the facts of Pistone's real story are tabled in favor of artistic license, but that's to be expected when adapting a true story to the screen.  Michael Madsen, as the new boss Sonny Red, is smart and ruthless to be sure, but even he is under intense pressure to deliver the goods to his superiors.   If he is implicated because he employs Lefty who in turn unwittingly allowed Donnie to infiltrate their business, then there is hell to pay for him also.  

When Donnie's stock rises in Sonny Red's eyes, Lefty feels left out in the cold.   His reaction and body language during a meeting with Florida mob bigwigs in which Donnie elevates himself to superstar status are both pathetic and touching.   Lefty's frustration is obvious.   Another mentee of his will bypass him on the way to the top, much like Sonny Red.  That's life in the mob, much like life in any other business.

Depp and Pacino handle the familiar ground as a touching study of a makeshift father/son relationship.  The violence in Donnie Brasco, as expected, is bloody and brutal.   The movie doesn't have the energy of a Goodfellas or The Departed but it isn't meant to either.   There are moral conflicts which weigh on Lefty and Donnie, which in turn gives Donnie Brasco its story of how lonely it can be in the middle, whether you're on the side of the law or the side of crime.