Review of Find Me Guilty (2006) by Aleksandar B — 10 Jul 2008

Solid, honest and at times heartfelt work from the principles in this cast, as well as a slightly different take on the traditional mob movie makes 'Find Me Guilty' a light and fluffy treat. Unlike most other contemporary mob films (Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, etc.) 'Find Me Guilty' avoids the by-the-numbers pseudo-documentary level details of every deal, murder and personal vendettas most mob films deal with.

It's focused on the court room and the trial and treats all the characters with equal amounts of respect. In many other mob films, anybody who wasn't part of the family or a hardened gangster was often times treated like the butt of the joke, the odd man out. An annoying, clueless, pestering, square, un-hip individual.

In 'Find Me Guilty', EVERYBODY is treated as a human being. The gangsters, while not portrayed as saints, are presented as regular people. Some are quite nice, some are ass holes, some are idiots and some are very intelligent and well spoken. Same goes for the lawyers. Peter Dinklage plays one of the lawyers who also acts as an unofficial advisor to DiNorsio, Diesel's character. They sit side by side in the court room and Dinklage gives friendly advise to Diesel. As in most of his roles, Dinklage's physical stature as a dwarf is completely inconsequential and practically never touched on. He's as fine an actor as you'll find working today. Possibly one of the best. Every role feels sincere and crisp.

The fact that much of the court room scenes were re-enacted with dialogue taken verbatem from court transcripts makes the film that much more fascinating, lending itself to the phrase "you couldn't make this shit up if you tried!".

It's fine, it's light, it puts the stereotypes in their place without ever feeling preachy or having the weight of seeming like it's TRYING to be something significant. The film makers set out to make an informative and entertaining film and they hit the nail on the head.

The director Sidney Lumet, one of the great court drama directors of our time, had the foresight to see that this film did not require the heavy handedness of his own past judicial system greats such as "The Verdict" or "12 Angry Men" and though about 80% of the film takes place within the courts, it's much more a study of how regardless of our occupations- gangster, F.B.I. agent, judge, juror, etc.- we're all complex people with our good qualities and our flaws.

'Find Me Guilty' brings out the gray areas in everybody, illuminating the rest of the terrain of humanity quite handily.