MY COUSIN VINNY
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Two boys charged with murder in Alabama
are defended by one boy's cousin, a loser played by Joe
Pesci. All the stereotyped characters are there, but by the
end of the film they have all become interesting characters.
Not great but fun. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4).
Teenagers Bill Gambini (played by Ralph Macchio) and Stan Rothstein (played by Mitchell Whitfield) are driving through Alabama on their way to UCLA. They drive illegally. Bill shoplifts a can of tuna. Then a cop pulls them over. The charge is murder. They need a good lawyer. The lawyer they get is just about the world's worst. Bill's cousin Vinny (played by Joe Pesci) just passed the bar six weeks before on his sixth try. He knows nothing about court procedure, and has never even served in a trial. But he will work free of charge, so down to Alabama he comes with his obnoxious bimbo girlfriend (played by Marisa Tomei). Now Bill and Stan are surrounded by stereotypes: the whiney girlfriend, the redneck cop, the silken, ambitious district attorney, the Southern judge who has pre-judged the case. About the only person who is not a stereotype is Vinny himself. Then something funny happens. The stereotypes start interacting and each becomes an interesting person. Even the trial gets interesting.
Joe Pesci, top-billed for the first time, doesn't quite have enough charisma to carry the film and Marisa Tomei very nearly steals the film from him. Meanwhile Macchio and Whitfield have little to do but stand around and say, "Oh, gee!" And of them, it is the lower-billed Whitfield who has the better role.
The comedy was written by Dale Launer, who also co-produced. This film is on a par with Launer's previous DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS though neither film is up to his RUTHLESS PEOPLE. MY COUSIN VINNY is a bright, pleasant comedy with a slightly distorted view of life in the South. It was directed by Jonathan Lynn, who wrote and directed the hit British comedy series "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister." Pesci's run-ins with the local culture are reminiscent of DOC HOLLYWOOD, also directed by a Briton. It is almost as if filmmakers are deciding that the rural South has gotten a bad rap in films and are now trying to give it a better image, or at least play off of expectations of the worse image. MY COUSIN VINNY is a likeable comedy that delivers at least most of the goods. I rate it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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