Find Me Guilty - Palm Beach Post movie review

'Find Me Guilty': Unlikely pair create guilty pleasure

By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post

Vin Diesel and Sidney Lumet. Now there are two names you never expected to see in the same sentence.

But sure enough, the mouth-breathing star of The Fast and the Furious and the veteran director of countless social dramas have indeed teamed up for Find Me Guilty, the story of a mob trial so ludicrous that it has to be true.

Yari Film Group

'Find Me Guilty'

The verdict: A tongue-in-cheek mob trial with Diesel acquitting himself as an actor.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Annabella Sciorra, Richard Portnow, Linus Roache
Run time: 125 minutes
Release date: March 17, 2006
Rating: R for strong language and some violence.
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Not surprisingly, Diesel gains more from the collaboration than Lumet does. Though Find Me Guilty is a cut below such Lumet courtroom classics as The Verdict and Twelve Angry Men, it is a highly watchable, albeit lightweight, slice of New Jersey crime family life. And certainly, Diesel gives his best performance yet as often-imprisoned "Jackie Dee" DiNorscio, with all other of his performances tied for a distant second.

What makes DiNorscio stand out from the twenty other defendants at this marathon trial in the late '80s is his ill-advised decision to defend himself. It is, however, the best thing about the movie, as he cajoles the jury and scores his legal points, knowing a few of the tenets of law from his previous arrests.

Ron Silver makes an aptly anguished Judge Finestein, amused and trying to keep his temper at the same time. Also a standout is diminutive Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent), who brings such dignity to the role of lead defense attorney.

Find Me Guilty is guilty as charged — a not-great, but entertaining sidebar to the Lumet library.