Gangsters with a heart...

Donnie Brasco has one impressive cast - Pacino, Depp, Anne Heche, Michael Madsen, Bruno Kirby, Tim Blake Nelson, Paul Giamatti. It's also got great source material - real-life story of an FBI agent who went undercover for six years with a NYC mob crew.

The movie deserves its place among the best mob movies made, but it's about a lot more than the mob. It's much more a story of a man torn between his life and his work, work that is changing him and devouring him, making him into the person he pretends to be. It's also a story of an older man - frustrated with his place as the fading gun on the mob - taking a young man under his wing, bringing him into the family and showing him how to not become the older man, stuck and frustrated in his current position.

Outstanding film...highly recommended...not quite on par with The Godfather or Goodfellas, but it's in the next echelon of mob films.

Started the film last night, finished it up today after tennis this morning.