Two Plus Two Newer Archives - "Find Me Guilty"

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I like mob movies. I love courtroom movies. This one is both, and it was written and directed by Sidney Lumet (director of Twelve Angry Men, Fail-Safe, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, The Verdict, along with 100 others--frankly, I didn't know the guy was still alive). What's not to love?

Well, they cast young studmuffin Vin Diesel to play a middle-aged Mafioso. That could backfire spectacularly, couldn't it? I mean, don't you have to act in a Lumet film?

The film's IMDb page says that they cast Diesel after first approaching Joe Pesci. Since it's a film about a mobster who represents himself at trial, and has the jurors laughing and the judge fuming, it's not too tough to imagine why Pesci was thinking, "Been there, done that."

I heard about this film while listening to my beloved "The Wiseguys Show" on Sirius, hosted by Vinny "Big Pussy" Pastore. His guests are usually two-bit Italian-American actors who do most of their work in small, indy mob movies, or on The Sopranos. He always asks, "Tell our audience what films you've been in." Whenever a guest mentions "'Find Me Guilty', with Vin Diesel," the conversation always stops, and the actors always take a moment to mention how great Diesel was in that film.

"I've got to check that one out," I think to myself, then forget about it five minutes later.

I'm sitting home tonight, bored, and browsing the PPV movies listed on my cable system, which I'm always too cheap to actually buy. But they had this one, so I parted with the $3.95.

I'm glad I did. It had all the mob stuff and courtroom stuff I could want, and a shockingly great performance by Diesel.

Believe it or not, I've never seen a Vin Diesel film. Looking at the list, none seem like they require any great acting abilities, so I wasn't expecting much coming into this one. But in "Find Me Guilty", Diesel shows us that he's got some game.

Enough preamble, let's get on with the review:

"Find Me Guilty" is based on the true story of Jackie DiNorscio. DiNorscio is just starting a 30-year sentence for selling drugs (he consistantly turns down offers for a lighter sentence in exchange for his testimony against his friends and family), when he is indicted along with about 20 other mobsters on Federal RICO charges.

Disgruntled with his high-priced lawyer ("I paid you $250,000 for the last trial, and what did I get? I got my dick in my hand!", he grumbles from his cell), he decides to represent himself at the RICO trial.

In terms of a mind-numbing test of a jury's endurance, this trial, with its 76 counts against 20 defendants, lasting almost two years before it was handed to the jury, makes the OJ Simpson trial look like a speeding ticket arraignment. It was, and still is, the longest criminal trial in American history.

Much of the courtroom conflict is not prosecution vs defendant, but defendant vs defendant. It's a conspiracy case, so if one defendant is found guilty, then they're all going away, and for a long time. The other mobsters all brought their high-priced mouthpieces, and if DiNorscio's courtroom antics piss off the jury, he's not just hurting himself--he's bringing down everybody. Because of this, there's a lot of tension over by the defense table, especially between DiNorscio and the head of the family, Nick Calabrese, played menacingly by Alex Rocco (he played Moe Greene in "The Godfather").

Here's why I'm not a good film reviewer: I don't know how to say, "Diesel was great in this." He was. He put on 30 pounds for the role, and...I don't know what else to say. "I enjoyed his performance"??? I wish I could put it into words what he did, and how he did it, but I can't. I'm no film reviewer. He had a great part, and he played it well. This is the lamest paragraph I've written in my 4500+ posts on 2+2, and I know it, but there's nothing I can do about it, except to say, "Watch this movie."

The similarities to "My Cousin Vinnie" are manifest, but there are many differences. The biggest difference, of course, is that this really happened. Another difference is that DiNorscio is not a lawyer like Pesci was in "Vinnie". Rather, his legal experience is his countless prior arrests and convictions. The judge in this one, played wonderfully by Ron Silver, is not a strict headmaster like "Vinnie" had to contend with. Silver's judge knows that DiNorscio is not a lawyer, and he gives him much more latitude, while still trying to keep him under control.

Despite the best efforts of the judge, DiNorscio still drops some hilariously inappropriate bombs in the courtroom, which are even funnier when you realize that this actually happened in real life (much of the courtroom dialogue was taken from the trial transcripts).

Another big contrast between this film and "Vinnie": in "Vinnie", the kids didn't do it, and Pesci didn't do anything, either. In "Find Me Guilty", DiNorscio *IS* a mobster. He probably *DID* do everything they say he did. He's accused of being a robbing, murdering sociopath. But he's the good guy in this movie. Early in the trial, when the prosecutor (another great performance, this one by Linus Roache, who co-starred with Diesel in "Riddick") is told, away from the courtroom, that a female juror said that DiNorscio is "cute", he snaps. "He's the bad guy! Don't these people get it???" Actually, the audience loves Jackie DiNorscio as much as the jurors. We also forget that "He's the bad guy." He's downright charming, and we love him.

I've got to mention one more good performance from this one, turned in by Peter Dinklage as the leading defense lawyer. He's a dwarf, or midget, or whatever the PC term is for somebody <4' tall. And he's one hell of a fine actor, as well. He can be my lawyer any time.

Bottom line: Not a great comedy like "Vinnie", but a very fun, unique, light-hearted comedy/courtroom drama. Most of all, a great performance by Vin Diesel (I still can't believe that I keep saying that).