My Cousin Vinny

Bill and Stan are mistaken for murderers while on vacation, and Bill’s family sends his cousin to defend them for his first case as a lawyer.

• Director:Jonathan Lynn
• Genre:Comedy / Crime
• Runtime:119 minutes

Cast

Joe Pesci : Vinny Gambini
Ralph Macchio : Bill Gambini
Marisa Tomei : Mona Lisa Vito
Mitchell Whitfield : Stan Rothenstein
Fred Gwynne : Judge Chamberlain Haller

While driving through the fictional Beechum County, Alabama, on their way to visit UCLA, New Yorkers Billy Gambini (Ralph Macchio) and his friend Stan Rothenstein (Mitchell Whitfield) accidentally forget to pay for a can of tuna after stopping at a convenience store. After they leave the store, the clerk is shot and killed in a robbery that happens off-screen, and Billy and Stan, who match the descriptions of the murderers given by witnesses, are then pulled over and detained in connection with the murder. Due to circumstantial evidence and a series of miscommunications based on the boys’ assumption that they have merely been detained for shoplifting, Billy ends up being charged with murder, and Stan is charged as an accessory.

The pair call Billy’s mother, who tells her son that there is an attorney in the family, Billy’s cousin, Vincent LaGuardia Gambini (Joe Pesci), who travels to Beechum County accompanied by his fiancee, Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei). Unfortunately, after meeting with Billy and Stan at the state prison where the guys are held, although Vinny is willing to take their case, he tells them that he is a neophyte personal injury lawyer from Brooklyn, New York, newly admitted to the bar (after six attempts to pass the bar exam), with no trial experience whatsoever.

Although Vinny manages to fool the uptight and conservative trial judge, Chamberlain Haller (Fred Gwynne), about being experienced enough to take the case, his ignorance of basic court procedures during his first day at the peliminary hearing, and his inadvertant abrasive, disrespectful attitude towards the judge gets him into trouble immediately. The following day, much to his clients’ consternation, Vinny, due to his inexperience, does not even bother to cross-examine any of the witnesses in the probable cause hearing, partly because the D.A., Jim Trotter III (Lane Smith) has not bothered to disclose his evidence to Vinny. As their claims go unquestioned, it appears that the prosecution has an airtight case that will inevitably lead to a conviction at the trial. After Vinny’s poor showing at the hearing, Billy and Stan decide to fire him and use the public defender John Gibbons (Austin Pendleton), but Vinny manages to obtain Trotter’s evidence and asks them for a chance to question one witness to prove himself.

The trial then opens with Vinny representing his cousin and Gibbons representing Stan. Despite some further missteps, including wearing an old-style long-tailed, red tuxedo to court (his suit fell in the mud and Judge Haller warned that Gambini had better be seen in court in a suit that had better be made out of cloth) and sleeping through the opening statement made by Trotter, Vinny shows that he can make up for his ignorance and inexperience with an aggressive, perceptive questioning style. While Gibbons stutters through a line of ill-prepared questions that appear to bolster the case against the boys, Vinny quickly and comprehensively discredits the testimony of the first witness. Billy’s faith is rewarded, and Stan yells out in court that he wants to retain Vinny after all, firing Gibbons. Read more

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