Essentials: My Cousin Vinny

Year: 1992
Genre: Comedy
Directed: Jonathan Lynn
Stars: Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei, Ralph Macchio, Mitchell Whitfield, Fred Gwynne, Lane Smith, Austin Pendleton, Bruce McGill, Maury Chaykin, Paulene Myers, Raynor Scheine, James Rebhorn
Production: 20th Century Fox

A homicide; a sleepy southern town is rocked to its very core. The lives of two innocent guys accused of murder are now the line. If they loose their case, the death penalty is a near certainty. What to do when the stakes are so high? Who can you truly depend on? Well family of course. Thus starts My Cousin Vinny, a fish-out-of-water courthouse procedural that just may be the most objectively lean and enjoyable scripts to ever come out of early 90's Hollywood.

When cousin Vinny (Pesci) shows up, he's clad head-to-toe in black leather; hardly the look of a newly minted lawyer. He sniffs around, as if simultaneously amused and horrified by rural Alabama's quaintness. His fiancee Mona Lisa Vito (Tomei) snaps pictures on her pink Polaroid; equally beside herself though mostly she's concerned about the quality of the Chinese food. The two youts initially accused of murder are Stan Rothenstein (Whitfield) and Bill Gambini (Macchio), two New Yorkers initially taking in the American South in their '64 Buick Skylark. In desperation Bill suggests the duo turn to his cousin, a personal injury lawyer imbued with the "Gambini" flare for argument.

At first glance, there is a lot to love about My Cousin Vinny. The film features a volatile mix of well recognized character actors including the boyish Ralph Macchio and the pitch-perfect casting of Fred Gwynne, Bruce McGill and Lane Smith as the judge, sheriff and prosecuting attorney respectively. Our two leads Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei are a revelation as two working-class urbanites struggling and failing to adapt to the inconveniences of loud sawmill whistles, rumbling trains and Alabama mud.

Years after My Cousin Vinny's release, many have joked that Tomei's Supporting Actress win in 1993 was at best a fluke and at worst undeserved. Many have made the argument that her Lisa can be summed up as a floozy just south of Miss Adelaide only made useful because she comes from a line of grease-monkeys. Yet within the context of the script, Lisa isn't just a plot device but is arguably the strongest character in the film. She's haughty, high-maintenance and nagging for sure, yet her resourcefulness, wit and intelligence always shines through. Most people arguing about a leaky faucet do so with angry indignation yet come from her pitter-pat with Vinny, she's smart, concise, charismatic and even a little erotic. She's basically the whole package.

#relationshipgoals

None of this could be accomplished without a dead-on-balls script by Dale Launer whose previous scripts Ruthless People (1986) and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) had a tailored affinity for good old-fashioned farce. My Cousin Vinny however is arguably Launer's best script to date. Every scene is the perfect balance between artfully disseminating information and tactfully piling on high and higher stakes all while being gut-bustingly hilarious. Most comedies would be so lucky to have a scene or two everyone knows and fondly remembers. My Cousin Vinny may just have to many to count.

Okay...you're just the tiniest bit stale.

If there's one thing wrong with My Cousin Vinny it's in the directing. Don't get it twisted, director Jonathan Lynn isn't bad and gets the job done but one can't help but think the entire process as film is entirely reflexive. There's just nothing special about the film visually. It creaks and strains under the limitations of early 90's big studio film-making and fails to take advantage of its screenplay with similarly grappling camerawork. Much like the similar A Few Good Men (1992), My Cousin Vinny  sadly looks and feels just a tiny bit dated.

My Cousin Vinny is an incredibly tight and wondrously fun little tall-tale that does wonders with the dusty courtroom genre. Not a sour note is reached among the cast which all run away with their roles and what's more, they seem to be having a lot of fun doing their thing. If I ever taught a class on screenwriting, I'd show My Cousin Vinny in the first week and celebrate it as a near-perfect example of good mainstream movie writing. After all, the film is already being used as a tool for young trial lawyers.

Final Grade: A-