DONNIE BRASCO (74)

Directed by: Mike Newell

Starring: Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madsen, Anne Heche, Bruno Kirby

The Pitch: A Mobster takes a shine to a young crook, and undertakes to initiate him into the Family ; but his protege is actually an undercover FBI agent using him as a way to infiltrate the Mob.

Theo Sez: As in QUIZ SHOW, Paul Attanasio seems to have a problem with writing towards a big climax (the film just seems to peter out), nor is he ever particularly subtle (even QUIZ SHOW fans cringe at the memory of the Van Dorens trading Shakespeare quotes across the dinner-table as someone explains that "it's a game our family plays") ; nonetheless, once again, his scenes have such verve and crackle they over-ride all objections just by the sheer confidence they inspire - it's a rare and gratifying thing to feel that whoever's at the helm really knows what they're doing. And, as in AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE, Newell has a real knack for deceptively sharp satire : these Mobsters are a lot like overgrown 12-year-olds, revelling in their secret codes and unable even to play a game of tennis without getting into a shoving-match - though they're also part of a stiflingly rigid hierarchy of rules and regulations. The combination of droll and sombre finds its most poignant expression in Pacino's Lefty Ruggiero, a "spoke in the wheel" and glorified dogsbody, the kind of small-time mafioso who takes care of the checking-in at airports : satirised mercilessly for his pretensions and big talk (even his self-touted cookery skills - a Mob-movie cliche since Clemenza's Spaghetti Sauce in THE GODFATHER - result only in a half-burnt kitchen and a curt signal for his long-suffering wife to take over), he's nonetheless as sad a figure as Willy Loman, stuck in an unfulfilling junior-level job - the only difference being the constant possibility of his best friends putting a bullet in his head. His relationship with the eponymous Donnie is what makes the film so special, both characters starting off by using each other - Donnie for his work, Lefty for his self-esteem - then becoming increasingly protective ; it's beautifully pitched and superbly played, two complementary studies in dissimulation and deflected emotions (not to mention expressive readings - every single line seems to be given a little fillip). It's just as well, for nothing else in the movie is quite as first-rate - especially in its later stages, when it gets rather diffuse and repetitive. What it does have is a kind of muted sadness, an absence of glamour (including the glamorous anti-glamour of determinedly "gritty" films like RAGING BULL) : it's just a bunch of not-terribly- bright people doing their best to keep some semblance of control over their lives. Very much the true story it advertises itself as - even if it's not quite the profound tragedy promised by the opening credits, black-and-white images to the strains of a rich string score. As for Bruno Kirby's haircut - fuhgedaboutit!