My Cousin Vinny (1992)

Synopsis

New York kids Bill Gambini (Ralph Macchio) and Stan Rothenstein are tooling down the backroads of Alabama in their convertible, taking the scenic route on their way to college out West. Great introductory visuals. The Playmate cooler nestled among all the crap in the backseat. The roadside shop festooned with designer hub caps. The signs: Dirt for Sale. Free Horse Manure. Been there; seen that.

A stop at a convenience store to refresh their supply of junk food takes a fateful turn. Bill, arms full, shoves a can of tuna in his pocket, and only down the road a piece does he realize he forgot to pay for it. Can that really be the reason the police car is pulling them over?

At the station, under interrogation by Sheriff Farley (Bruce McGill), Bill is eager to come clean. Yes, he’s the culprit.

Only he’s confessed to killing the store clerk, not lifting a can of tuna.

The boys’ only recourse is to rely on Bill’s cousin Vinny Gambini (Joe Pesci). Vinny arrives in town shortly thereafter. His fiancé Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei) is along for support, eager to help Vinny win his first case so they can get married.

Oh yeah, his first case.

What comes next is an occasionally funny, but more often an annoying, few days where Vinny has to learn to acquit himself as a real attorney in a courtroom ruled over by Judge Chamberlain Haller (Fred Gwynne), a stickler for procedure. Can he reign in his smart mouth, study up on court procedure, keep Mona happy, and make sure the boys don’t fry for a can of tuna?

Skip It

In its day, My Cousin Vinny must have been far more hilarious than it is today. Or maybe I was just not in the right mood when I caught up with it. Joe Pesci a quite good as Vinny, a fundamentally nice guy who genuinely wants to help but is adrift in his first foray as an actual lawyer but is too proud to ask for help. Likewise, Marisa Tomei is quite watchable as the fiancé who is devoted to her man but increasingly pissed off when he fails to recognize that she could be of genuine help. The rest of the cast … serviceable, but nothing exemplary. Except for Ralph Macchio’s impression of Joe Pesci as Vinny, which he nails hilariously.

For my taste the humor plays too much on lamely constructed miscommunication. There’s Bill’s mistaken confession. Vinny’s introductory conversation with Stan in the lockup. All the way to Mona’s witness stand testimony and the trick question. And too many minutes are frittered away with “humorous” asides: a running gag about Vinny’s being unable to get a good night’s sleep, an encounter over $200 that a grifter extracts from Mona, a needlessly tedious argument about a dripping faucet.

On the other hand: award points for not portraying the key Southerners as bigots out to railroad the city kids. The judge and the sheriff and the DA all recognize truth when they finally hear it. And when it gets down to Vinny’s witness interrogations, it was momentarily good. But there shoulda been more of Pesci being focused, less of Pesci being distracted.

My Cousin Vinny tends to score well on movie review sites. So if you want to ignore me and give it a try, go wild. I won’t take it personally. It sets out to deliver a few laughs, and if you’re in the right mood, you might discern more humor here than I did.