I watched the movie My Cousin Vinny for the first time all the way through tonight, surprised by how many parts really made me laugh! I watched it with a large group of friends, who were just looking for a laugh to brighten up a dismal, gray evening. I found the caricature New York City Italians hilarious in their roles. Especially Vinny and his beauty-salon worker fiance.
It is yet another example of a film where the underdogs come out on top. Maybe Vinny doesn’t dress the right way to suit the judge, or he has to wear an outrageous second-hand suit after his good one was dropped in the mud. Maybe his efforts to prove his cousin innocent just further incriminated him. I thought the writer was so clever in working out the details so that Vinny discovered that he couldn’t always win by himself. The moral of the story was more like, sometimes you just need to rely on other people. You can’t win all the fights alone.
I am somewhat partial to courtroom movies - the suspense, the deception, the hidden truth... In the beginning, Vinny was making a fool of himself in front of the jurors. His questions and points did not aid him in proving the truth at all. Rather, they made him the laughingstock of the courtroom. However, as the movie reached its point of culmination, Vinny’s selective reasoning comes into play, as he uses his fiance to help him win the case.
However, due to the humorous nature of the film, it is unlike any other courtroom case I have witnessed. A Few Good Men was an incredible drama which took place in court, yet lacked the slapstick humor that this film so wittingly displayed.
I also found the stuttering public defense attorney to be absolutely hilarious! It was minor characters like him that just added to the humor of the entire movie. He could barely make out a sentence in front of the judge and the courtroom, and obviously couldn’t make a valid argument.
The director of the movie exaggerates the personalities of each character, until they become almost cartoon-ish. It is this quality that keeps us so entertained, as we see bits of people around us in each of the characters.
I think that people like me, who are familiar with many [do I dare say] stereotypical New Yorkers would truly appreciate the humor and work that went into creating this funny movie.