Donnie Brasco is a film concerned with the meaning of the word LOYALTY. In the film, Donnie is struggling to balance his life as an informant and the morality of pretending to be a mobster. This is further complicated by his lone dog created narrative and his real-life family man struggles. There is a part of us that wishes to see Donnie out of his current situation, not informing but at a desk job safe with his wife/kids or the complete opposite...what if he was never a family man? Would Donnie be better at his job and more fulfilled? The questions and answers are quite difficult as the film even challenges our notions of civic duty.
Did anyone really care that Donnie did "the right thing" by bringing down the mobsters he did, or did he suffer in a personal hell and almost die for nothing other than moral principals that now even he no longer can believe in? This is not a celebration of thrills like in GOODFELLAS but instead a deep and dark examination of a man in search of meaning in a dark and evil world.