Find Me Guilty is based on a true story of Jack DiNorscio who was a mobster and was involved in the longest mafia trial in U.S. History. Playing Jack DiNorscio is the unlikely choice, Vin Diesel. Diesel has established himself as an action star and as not a very good actor. Along comes this little movie and Diesel is more of an actor than one could have imagined. It almost seems like Vin Diesel wasn't the casting director's top choice, but instead the crew wanted to make something more out of Diesel.
Diesel's career is filled with action movies, Pitch Black, The Fast and the Furious, Knockaround Guys and xXx are just some of them. He takes a one hundred and eighty degree turn with Find Me Guilty and becomes a more serious actor. This is still a gangster film, but its a film, a courtroom drama more like it. Most of Find Me Guilty is set in the courtroom which can become tedious if the dialogue is not interesting enough. Well, the dialogue is solid and even offers some comedy from DiNorscio himself.
Find Me Guilty is co-written and directed by Sidney Lumet who has quite a resume, especially for crime films. Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon are easily his best. Find Me Guilty is a worthy addition, but it certainly is far from great. There are flaws in this film that hold it back from being more effective than it ended up being. Part of the problem here is that this film does not let the audience is experience crimes, we only hear about it. Its exactly like someone does what not part of crime and then they get lost and only have your words for them to picture it.
In ways, not letting the viewer witness the crimes makes Find Me Guilty less predictable, but it also doesn't involve the viewer as much. However, the dialogue here is intriguing and does keep one interested even though its not thrilling. Its intriguing, its funny, but it is not thrilling. This isn't your Judge Mathis or Judge Judy defendants either, these people actually have stories to tell and lots of them. If you enjoy witnessing cases than Find Me Guilty will please, still thats not all its about.
This film keeps the drama interesting by creating situations that are outside of the courtroom. Since it jumps right into the courtroom ten minutes after it starts, it doesn't cheat the audience out of knowing details about those close to DiNorscio. Sure, there are probably things that stretch the truth in this film, but many other films that are based on a true story hardly even stick to only the facts. This is more about if you are enjoying the case than if you can the action and the conclusion.
Find Me Guilty is flawed, its not great, but its decent and its entertaining. Let me tell you that cases in courts are long and boring, but Find Me Guilty didn't feel like neither of those. Its an interesting turn to see Vin Diesel do this type of project and just like the film, he is passable. While I don't agree with some of the things people had to say and some of the things they did, Find Me Guilty is an interesting little tale, although a bit silly, it always has great dialogue and that is its high point.
