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Donnie Brasco - 9/10
What I really liked about this was how different it seems. It may look and sound like a typical mob film, but there are more things to it than that. I love that Pacino is playing a man, who beforehand in films like Godfather and Scarface, plays this Godly all powerful man who seems immortal. In this, he's near broke, paranoid, and aging most of all. He takes in Depp's Brasco like the son he never had. Both find something in the other that the other doesn't have, and understand each other more than anyone else in their lives do. You genuinely feel this father/son relationship between them. Both Pacino and Depp give terrific performances. It's like he chose this role because of the reason I said. It's so different than Michael or Tony Montana. You see the age and years in his eyes taking a toll on him. It really is sad to see how their relationship pan out. Because despite Brasco's job and what he has to do, they connect so much. Depp should be getting more credit for this too. Usually the eccentric role taker, here he's a New York cop with a Brooklyn accent. Of course he's unrecognizable. He even sounds like the real Joseph Pistone. At times it seems his undercover life feels more familiar and home to him than his regular family life. And Anne Heche, who I usually dislike, it quite good as his wife.
And the score also really enhances the relationship between Lefty and Brasco somehow. Those violins pull at you.
What I really liked about this was how different it seems. It may look and sound like a typical mob film, but there are more things to it than that. I love that Pacino is playing a man, who beforehand in films like Godfather and Scarface, plays this Godly all powerful man who seems immortal. In this, he's near broke, paranoid, and aging most of all. He takes in Depp's Brasco like the son he never had. Both find something in the other that the other doesn't have, and understand each other more than anyone else in their lives do. You genuinely feel this father/son relationship between them. Both Pacino and Depp give terrific performances. It's like he chose this role because of the reason I said. It's so different than Michael or Tony Montana. You see the age and years in his eyes taking a toll on him. It really is sad to see how their relationship pan out. Because despite Brasco's job and what he has to do, they connect so much. Depp should be getting more credit for this too. Usually the eccentric role taker, here he's a New York cop with a Brooklyn accent. Of course he's unrecognizable. He even sounds like the real Joseph Pistone. At times it seems his undercover life feels more familiar and home to him than his regular family life. And Anne Heche, who I usually dislike, it quite good as his wife.
And the score also really enhances the relationship between Lefty and Brasco somehow. Those violins pull at you.
