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My Cousin Vinny is a 1992 American movie starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei. Tomei won an Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actress for her performance. The cast also includes Ralph
Macchio, Fred Gwynne, Lane Smith, and Bruce McGill.
Warning: Plot details
follow.
The movie portrays Vinny Gambini (Pesci), a lawyer from Brooklyn, New York, newly admitted to the bar. In his first court trial, Gambini
demonstrates the remarkable skills necessary for a trial lawyer to find the weaknesses in an adversary's case as it is presented
at trial.
After appearing before the judge at the arraignment in his nephew's murder
case in a leather jacket without a tie Vinny is thrown into jail for failing to enter a plea of "not guilty" for his nephew and
friend and for not giving the judge due respect. On his second appearance before the same
judge Vinny Gambini does not even bother to cross examine one witness in the probable cause hearing. His nephew and
his friend decide to hire the public defender but they quickly
realize that Cousin Vinny (who failed the bar exam five times before passing) is still a superior lawyer than available through
local legal aid.
Vinny's brilliant style comes to the fore during the trial when his cross-examination techniques expose the weaknesses in the prosecutor's case. Of course his brilliant denouement would not have been possible without his fiancée's
ability to serve as an expert witness. None the less Vinny's
performance and his tribulations are an exemplary presentation of the skill necessary for a criminal defense trial lawyer to
succeed at trial and why so many lawyer plead their cases out and accept a plea
bargain or settlement when faced with the vagaries of
courtroom practice.
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