Seldom do courtroom dramas manage to keep my attention held for longer than an hour, letalone two. But 1992’s ‘My Cousin Vinny’ seems to almost effortlessly dance the line between soft comedy and genuinely engaging drama.
The plot? 2 young men on christmas break get picked up by the cops when the owner of a store they stopped off at winds up murdered and witnesses say they saw their car speeding from the scene, at first the men dont realise they’re in for Murder. They think they’ve been picked up because one of the gents accidentally put a tin of tuna in his pocket and forgot to pay.
Its only AFTER the pair basically admit ‘they did it’ that they realise what they’ve been admitting to…is MURDER. Seemingly on the line for a crime they didnt commit, the pair dont have the cash to hire an attourney, so one of them calls his mother, who informs him that theres a practicing lawyer in the family who’ll happily represent them and waive his fee.
Enter Joe Pesci as Vinny, a man who’s legal standing is dubeous at best and has never represented someone on a trial level, who rocks up to town in a mud covered convertable with his long suffering fiance Mona Lisa Vito. As you can imagine, its a steep learning curve to go from defending against the occasional parking ticket to representing 2 people for murder and aiding and abetting…But being a lawyer cant be that hard…surely?
And honestly? I loved this thing, the script is just such a well crafted and delightful piece that keeps a slow and steady pace across a clean 3 act structure, its apparently fairly accurate in terms of how court practices take place. It manages to thrill at times with genuine revelations that come out of left field, while also sprinkling in a nice amount of genuinely funny comedy moments.
The characters are well written with a decent degree of depth and nuance, complexities that arnt really commonly seen in films like this…or if they are are often overly stuffy or on a more emotional level. This, at its heart is really more of a family drama that just so happens to be centered around a courtroom. With Vinny and Mona Lisas relationship and Vinny and his cousins relationship forming a sturdy base with which the trial is hung.
Theres also a wide range of characters on show, you have Vinny and Mona Lisa who are almost charicatures of the typical stereotypical big town new yorkers. But then around them you have a mixture of southern stereotypes, eccentrics and even some just plain old normal people. Its a melting pot of styles that in less capable hands could have easily fallen down, but here? its a lot of plates successfully spun in my opinion.
Tonally it’s very well balanced with a wide(ish) range of humour that dabbles in a bit of everything, but never goes too far into any one type thus removing the risk of it becoming annoying or lopsided. In fact, theres only two things im particularly critical of here…One of which is the sheer amount of swearing…Now dont get me wrong, I like a well timed ‘F-bomb’ as much as the next guy. But swearing in comedy is a delicate art, a well timed curse word can be hilarious. But if its used too much, or aggressively overplayed, it quickly stops being funny and starts feeling fake. Or worse, irritating.
Here? they overdo it in my opinion. There are some very well timed moments, but it almost felt like they were trying to go for a record setter on how many ‘Fucks’ they could put into the movie before the credits. I dont think it helped the script and a lot of them just felt kind of forced.
The OTHER issue (and this really is a nitpick) is the pacing. Which, while its slowburn and largely fine for most of the runtime, isnt without its problems. A recurring gag in which Pesci and his partner are woken up at 5am (or earlier) by various countryside noises is at first quirky and kind of charming, but they repeat it 1 or 2 too many times and as a result the payoff feels a bit overstayed. Theres a lot of scenes in hotel rooms, which I appreciate keeps the costs down, but they didnt quite feel necessary to the overall plot. Its a case once again where I reckon one more pass through to take 2 hours down by…even 5 minutes, probably would have helped this film a lot more than hindered it.
Outside of that, the direction is actually pretty standard for a film like this, its a studio picture, they dont really experiment all that much, stylistically it kind of reminded me of a John Hughes film…But it doesnt really seem to find its own identity until near the 3rd act, at which point the moments kind of gone. That being said, its a tight production with all the cast seemingly knowing EXACTLY where to be and how to play to the directors interests and the crew doing a fantastic job of working together to bring the thing to life.
The cine too is pretty solid, but also kind of standard, theres decent attempts at blocking, colour use is a bit of an issue as its a fairly muted production on that front. and while theres a healthy amount of b-roll, I think it would have benefitted from just a little more and a rethink on what kind of identity this film wanted to make for itself. Just a smidge more of a stylized approach really could have been a big lift for this thing.
I also had a few problems with the edit, which is remarkably well timed for a comedy in a courtroom. But some scenes do have strange cuts, which make me think there were last minute removals from the film and some scenes end kind of abruptly or without reason. Theres also some threads that never really get resolved or paid off. Its not the cleanest edit i’ve ever seen, i’ve absolutely seen worse. But thats probably this films biggest issue.
Performance wise, its damn near perfect. This is absolutely a role I can only really envision Joe Pesci playing, Vinnys a loudmouth, arrogant, sarcastic, he’s not above bending the law to get what he wants. he’s animated and while hes REALLY leaning into the NY accent here, he IS this movie. And his performance here is easily up there with some of his best.
Same goes for Marisa Tomei who I just utterly melted for here as Mona Lisa Vinny, she’s caring, compassionate, INCREDIBLY knowledgable , but not above calling someone out if they’re bullshitting. Tomei brings every single aspect of that character to life with a real zeal, much like Pesci, not only can I not imagine anyone else playing this role. I dont WANT anyone else to play this role. it’s perfect to the point of near iconic.
Not forgetting Fred Gwynne of course as the judge, who’s very dower and brings a real no nonsense energy to the role, but even in doing so manages to keep things animate in his facial expressions. He’s a fantastic character actor and here? its nice to see him play against type as a somewhat grumpy character who just wants to get on with his day.
The soundtracks so 90s its painful in places, but it does have some nice jukebox 50s and early 60s tracks to help create a ‘throwback’ sense. The scores used effectively, its fine enough. But I do feel it could have been stronger.
All in all? I was very pleasently surprised by this. I can easily see it having a lot of rewatch value, I really enjoyed it as a quite gentle and mellow watch. Highly recommended even if you arnt that sold on courtroom pieces. Its an interesting twist on a familiar genre that isnt too heavy handed, and has a lot of heart.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/my-cousin-vinny/
