(1992) Two New York City boys - Bill Gambini (Ralph Macchio) and Stan Rothenstein (Mitchell Whitfield) - on their way to college in California, driving a '64 metallic-green Buick Skylark convertible with white top, riding on Michelin Model XGV tires, size 75-R-14, decide to travel through Alabama in January on their way West. Stopping at the Sac-o-Suds convenience store in Wazoo, Bill accidentally puts a can of tuna into his coat pocket while trying to manage an armful of items toward the counter. Shortly afterward a highway-patrol officer pulls them over with his weapon trained on them.

Arrested Bill thinks for shoplifting, he's cooperative and willing to confess, until Sheriff Farley asks: "At what point did you shoot the clerk?" Allowed one phone call, Bill contacts his mother, who suggests their cousin as an attorney. Arriving in a '62 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible with Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei), his fiancée of ten years, wearing a black leather jacket and ebony cowboy boots, Vinny Gambini (Joe Pesci) has come to rescue Bill and Stan, charged with murder and accessory, from the clutches of the law.

However, Vinny, trained as a personal-injury attorney, has some shortcomings: this will be his first case ever, having graduated from law school six years earlier, then spending the intervening time attempting and finally passing the bar exam, which occurred almost six weeks prior to this incident. In his interview with Judge Chamberlain Haller (Fred Gwynne) in order to establish his credentials to defend his clients, Vinny lies about his previous courtroom experience.

During the arraignment and again during the pre-trial hearing, Judge Haller cites the aggressively assertive, argumentative New York litigator for contempt of court for dress-code violation and inappropriate conduct. Vinny reassures Lisa: "I'll learn as I go."

After paying Vinny's bail, she complains that she had to cash their traveler's checks because some guy stiffed her when she hustled him at pool, so Vinny confronts the big stud, temporarily bamboozling him with lawyering language and a challenge to kick his ass when he can produce $200.

While Vinny's sartorial choices are limited, Lisa, who repeatedly asks if she can be of any help, appears in a different wild-and-sexy outfit each day, taking photos with her pink camera. Vinny says of his sweetheart Lisa, an out-of-work hairdresser, descended from a long line of auto mechanics: "She knows everything about cars."

Meanwhile, anxious about what he's seen of Vinny's lack of finesse in court, Stan decides to cast his lot instead with John Gibbons (Austin Pendleton), a stuttering public defender. Overwhelmed and lacking sleep (a factory whistle, squealing hogs, a rumbling train interrupting his sleep each night), faced with Bill's fate - three eyewitnesses and an FBI expert in the dock supporting the version of events according to District Attorney Jim Trotter III (Lane Smith) along with a prejudicial bench - and that of his career, personal liberty (the judge informs him: "You're a dead man"), and marriage (promised once he'd won his first case), Vinny can only count on his street-smarts and Lisa's confidence in him.

However, she repeatedly provides Vinny with both sparklingly helpful pointers (the prosecution must provide full disclosure) and coarsely constructive criticism. For example, when Vinny asks her, "What about these pants I got on? You think they're okay?" before going hunting with Trotter as an act of male bonding, she exclaims: "Imagine you're a deer. You're prancing along. You get thirsty. You spot a little brook. You put your little deer lips down to the cool, clear water - BAM. A fuckin' bullet rips off part of your head. Your brains are lying on the ground in little bloody pieces. Now I ask ya, would you give a fuck what kind of pants the son-of-a-bitch who shot you was wearing?"

In frustration he says to her: "I wanted to win my first case without any help from anybody." Dale Launer's screenplay, directed by Jonathan Lynn, is full of funny, malapert, pungent dialogue laced with expletives.

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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