Movie Review: Find Me Guilty

Find Me Guilty

Okay, I know how many of you love true confessions, and here's mine: I'd pay to watch Vin Diesel eat cookies. I fell in love with him in the darkly brilliant Pitch Black, and I thought he was perfectly cast in xXx. I don't buy a lot of movies, but I own those (along with the much-maligned follow-up to Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick). I didn't know much about Find Me Guilty, but I knew Vin Diesel was in it so it was a given I'd buy a ticket despite having last seen him in the formulaic and awful The Pacifier. What a thrill it was to see not only Vin Diesel on screen, but to see him in a really good movie to boot!

Find Me Guilty tells the true story of the federal government's RICO case against some alleged members of New Jersey's Luchese crime family. With 76 counts, 20 defendants, and a mountain of exhibits and witnesses from both sides, the case resulted in the longest criminal trial ever conducted (some 21 months). Among the 20 defendants: Giacomo "Jackie Dee" DiNorscio (Vin Diesel).

Jackie is already behind bars and facing a 30 year sentence when he's also named in the extensive RICO indictment. The lead prosecutor in the case, Sean Kierney (Linus Roache) offers Jackie a deal he doesn't believe he can refuse: a mitigation on his drug sentence if he'll testify in the RICO case. Jackie turns him down flat. Kierney is upset, but he still has a witness he believes can ace the case. That Jackie happens to have a relationship with that witness is incidental (though it does serve to make parties on both sides of the case just a little nervous).

When the 20 defendants and their defense attorneys appear in court, Judge Finestein (Ron Silver) asks Jackie about his defense attorney. Jackie, who is none too pleased with his lawyer after losing his drug case and receiving such a stiff sentence, announces he intends to serve as his own counsel. The judge works to dissuade him; the 19 defense attorneys in the room are also not happy with the idea. But against all advice, Jackie insists and so is permitted to defend himself.

The apparent lead defense attorney, Ben Klandis (Peter Dinklage) calms the other attorneys with a "let's wait and see if he causes any damage" attitude. At the same time, he subtly helps Jackie in small ways. But Jackie, either with or without advice, is unstoppable. He doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut, and has a terrible tendency to speak his mind. Eventually, the judge does what he can to rein him in with contempt charges.

Meanwhile, despite Jackie's obvious legal ineptness, the prosecution is worried. It seems the jurors are laughing at Jackie's jokes. Worse, one is overheard telling another that she thinks Jackie is cute. Kierney takes what underhanded action he can to ensure Jackie is as uncomfortable as possible in his holding cell. Unbeknownst to him, he's got some help in that department. Jackie's purported boss and co-defendant, Nick Calabrese (Alex Rocca) is no friend to him, either.

Written and directed by noted director Sidney Lumet, Find Me Guilty is fascinating in no small part because almost all of the court dialogue wasn't written by Lumet. It consists, instead, of actual court transcripts made during the real trial. Of course, none of it would work if not for the quality of acting from the men who play each of the major roles, and to a man (and in the case of Annabella Sciorra's brief but scorching turn as Jackie's estranged wife, to a woman) they live up to the requirement.

As much as I like Vin Diesel, I think it's perfectly fair to say he's best known as an action hero in the vein of Arnold Schwarzenegger rather than an actor (and he's good at it, thank you very much). In Find Me Guilty, though, he's gained weight, sports hair on his previously shaven skull, and typically appears onscreen in either an ill-fitting suit or jailhouse garb. He couldn't be further from the action hero, and yet he's just fantastic. Both I and the friend who saw the movie with me couldn't stop talking about just how good he was in this role.

That's not to say that others weren't also very good, because they were. Peter Dinklage in particular was terrific, exhibiting just the right amount of brilliance and solemnity as required in the courtroom, and the same time being a very human and decent guy (dare I say "for a lawyer?") behind the scenes. Linus Roache also did a fine job as the prosecutor utterly consumed by this case and his unwavering determination to put each and every one of the defendants behind bars. Meanwhile, Ron Silver took what could have been a merely authoritarian role and injected some humanity and even a little humor into it as the trial slowly moves along.

The script, even though much was taken from transcripts, also went outside the courtroom where creative license certainly had to be taken. To Lumet's great credit, the lines spoken by characters under those circumstances meshed with entirely believable reality with those heard inside the courtroom. The editing was on a few occasions a bit choppy, but as a whole both the cinematography and film edits contributed almost invisibly to the time and place the movie depicts.

I honestly don't remember this trial (it was conducted in the 1980's), but the movie made it seem very real. In fact, it was real enough that today it almost seems a true memory for me, and that's saying something for the quality of the drama (and honestly, the comedy, too) presented on screen. But better yet, my friend and I both enjoyed every minute of Find Me Guilty, and that's what movies — no matter the subject — are really all about.

POLITICAL NOTES: There's been much made of racketeering laws and both their utility and their potential misuse. In this case, I can't honestly say the laws were misused, but certainly the very expensive (in both time and money) Luchese family trial is an indicator that perhaps some consideration should be given as to RICO's strict applicability (in fairness, perhaps it has been since this particular trial was conducted). Otherwise, I don't know how much can be learned from such a film outside its historical context except for this one very important message: juries have all the power in the end. It would behoove both sides of every court case to remember that, and even more importantly, for each of us as potential jurors to keep that in mind as well.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Find Me Guilty is rated R for "strong language, some violence." Most of what you'll see and hear in the movie isn't particularly objectionable for the average 14 year-old. The real danger here for younger children, I think, is to come away looking at gangsters as heroic figures. While the movie makes no bones about the significant grey area between black and white in this case, it's also tempting to come down solidly on the side of the alleged bad guys. While you and I can make various distinctions and offer some legitimate rationale for those distinctions, younger viewers can't (or won't). As a result, if you intend to let your kids see this movie, I'd encourage you to see it along with them and discuss it afterwards to inject your own lessons where you feel those on screen have fallen short — or have been skewed — from your own.