Find Me Guilty
Studio: Yari Film Group
Rated: R
Website: http://www.findmeguilty.com/
Release Date: 2006-03-31
Cast: Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Annabella Sciorra, Richard Portnow, Linus Roache
Director: Sidney Lumet
Screenwriter: Sidney Lumet, T.J. Mancini, Robert J. McCrea
WorkNameSort: Find Me Guilty
Our Rating: 1.00
OK, you’re guilty. An oafish Vin Diesel stars in the reality-based story of a New Jersey mobster who made the risky move of representing himself in a RICO trial that could have sent the entire New Jersey branch of the Lucchesi crime family up the river. No matter how hard he’s bullied by overzealous prosecutors, Diesel’s Jack DiNorscio has too much “love” for his paisans to rat them out; the movie expects us to be simply charmed by this lunkheaded resolve, and by the character’s goomba self-effacement. It only works if one holds a soft spot in one’s heart for drug-trafficking boors. The real-life proceeding was supposedly the longest Mafia trial in American history, and you can feel all 600-plus days of it in Sidney Lumet’s turgid screen translation. But at least putting the audience to sleep short-circuits any harm that could be done by such an unabashed celebration of thuggery and justice denied.
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 4, 2006.