My Cousin Vinny

My Cousin Vinny (1992) starts with two college students accused of a murder they did not commit in Alabama. The only lawyer in the family is Vinny Gambini: from Brooklyn, passed the bar on his sixth attempt, and never tried a case. The surprise is not the comedy, it is the law. American law schools and bar preparation courses use this film as teaching material. Federal judges including Richard Posner have praised it for cross examination and rules of evidence, and one legal writer put it plainly: everything that happens in the film could happen at a real trial, and often does. There is a reason. Director Jonathan Lynn read law at Cambridge. Marisa Tomei won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. It was the last film of Fred Gwynne, who plays Judge Chamberlain Haller; he died the following year. There is also a shadow over it now. Austin Pendleton, who plays the stuttering public defender, said in 2022 that he regrets the role, that it nearly ended his career, and that he received angry letters from people who stutter. It runs 119 minutes. Good for: courtroom comedy, culture clash humour, and Tomei's performance. Less good for: it takes its time and the first half hour asks for patience. The Southern caricature is thick, and the stuttering joke plays badly today.