Review: Find Me Guilty

Vin Diesel (with an admittedly unconvincing hairpiece) is real-life Jersey mobster Jackie DiNorscio, who defended himself in the longest mafia trial in U.S. history. During the 21 months, with each of Jackie’s 19 co-defendants having their own lawyer, Jackie’s goofball antics and unpolished/unqualified defence earns him the contempt of mob boss Alex Rocco (despite Jackie refusing to rat anyone out, I might add), but also endears him to the all-important jury (after all, this is a guy who forgives the lowlife junkie cousin who shot him four times!). The judge (Ron Silver), meanwhile, doesn’t know what the hell to make of it all. Peter Dinklage plays the head Defence counsel, who whispers advice to the untrained, barely schooled Jackie at certain points. Annabella Sciorra (who looks too old for the part) has an overrated, one-scene glorified cameo as Jackie’s wife.

 

Seriocomic 2006 Sidney Lumet (“12 Angry Men”, “The Verdict”, “Network”, “Serpico”, “Dog Day Afternoon”) courtroom flick based on a true story is a little hard to swallow, with Diesel’s charismatic and likeable presentation of real-life mobster Jackie DiNorscio as a kind of class clown with a constant ‘What Me Worry?’ expression on his face as he tries to pull one over on the jury. The stunt casting had people in apoplexy when snippets were viewed in Lumet’s Lifetime Achievement Award highlight reel at the Oscars the previous year. However, Diesel’s surprisingly pretty good in the role as it is written (and thespian or not, he has presence at the very least). Lumet and his co-writers T.J. Mancini and Robert J. McCrea have clearly stacked the deck in the likeable goombah’s favour, and I was smelling something fishy throughout (although, to be fair, most of the dialogue was supposed taken verbatim from court transcripts). I was supposed to be buying this guy as a likeable goof who pretty much did nothing wrong, but I couldn’t help thinking that he had to have done something criminal, surely (and he was indeed serving time for a narcotics charge during the trial, though the film makes that seem somewhat trumped-up), and his cronies...well, I couldn’t really sympathise with these drug lords, gangsters and thugs, either. But Lumet, acting as master illusionist Johnny Cochrane, was constantly trying to bamboozle me into thinking these guys were alright. Well, they ain’t alright to me, Mr. Lumet!

 

And yet…the film kinda works. I was entertained, if not persuaded, at least. It’s not the slightest bit dull (no mean feat given the length of the trial!), especially whenever diminutive Dinklage is on screen to walk off with the picture. The late Ron Silver is good, too, as the judge, trying his best to keep a lid on the often circus-like proceedings. It’s better than “My Cousin Vinny” at any rate and although not vintage Lumet, worth a look.

 

Rating: B-