Guilty Verdict

Find Me Guilty

Directed by Sidney Lumet

In Pauline Kael's original New Yorker review of Sidney Lumet's 1982 The Verdict, she wondered: "Why would anyone want to make a contemporary courtroom drama look like a Caravaggio?" Well, Lumet is still reaching, foolishly, toward art. Find Me Guilty is Lumet's first film in 10 years, and now his idiosyncratic New York City vulgarity reflects post-Scorsese, post-Sopranos influence. This courtroom farce about New Jersey Mafioso Jackie DiNorscio's 627-day trial pushes a new sense of justice.

Lumet's courtroom becomes a crucible of melting pot Americana. Its best ingredient-and funniest clown-is Vin Diesel's portrayal of a middle-aged man with a gut and receding hairline, a guy who never wore a suit before his day in court acting as his own lawyer.

Diesel is likably crude ("I'm not a gangster, I'm a gagster.") which is better than Lumet's fumbling hand at comedy. But nothing excuses Lumet's patronizing Family-of-man gallery of jury faces while a dwarf lawyer (Peter Dinklage) gives his summation. Lumet celebrates the common man, even when the common man is criminal. Still, he ain't no Caravaggio.