Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992 TAG: 9203140358
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Fortunately, the Yankees this time around are just as strange and exotic.
This is one of those occasions in which performances win the day. Without the benefit of Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei and Fred Gwynne, it could have been an undistinguished road trip.
But this trio, with some solid supporting performances, musters up enough comic spirit to push through the slow spots.
The movie begins as two New York college kids (Ralph Macchio and Mitchell Whitfield) head west for school via the warm, Southern route. They chuckle at the quaint roadside signs as they make their way into a land where there are no strip malls or fast-food joints. It's one of the conceits of this type of movie that the homogenization of American culture stops at the Mason-Dixon line.
At any rate, the two guys stop at a store, load up on groceries and are shortly after arrested for the murder of the clerk.
They're in desperate need of legal representation and a call home alerts them to a Brooklyn lawyer in the family of the kid played by Macchio.
His name is Vinny Gambini, and he roars into town dressed in a black leather sport coat and cowboy boots with a babe in tow whose skirts are as short as her eyelashes are long. Played with sustained comic believability by Pesci, Vinny is a blue-collar guy who had to take six bar exams to pass. Tomei plays Lisa, his girlfriend who knows everything about cars but little about low-key fashion. She's a fresh comic talent who keeps perfect pace with Pesci.
One of the movie's major strengths is the way it allows Lisa to demonstrate her mechanical knowledge, her common sense and her awareness of the seriousness of the situation.
Gwynne plays the trial judge and his reaction to Vinny is generally one of droll astonishment.
Director Jonathan Lynn and writer Dale Launer sometimes don't know when to end a joke. There's an early scene of mistaken identity that goes on too long and there's a running gag about Vinny's sleeplessness that tires itself out. To their credit, though, Launer and Lynn manage to take what seems like a pointless grits joke and work it into the plot.
The plot isn't of primary importance, though. The performances are and they're funny and on target.
\ `My Cousin Vinny' ***: A Twentieth Century-Fox picture at Valley View Mall 6 (362-8219) and Salem Valley 8 (389-0444); Rated R for language; 117 minutes.
by CNB