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Find Me Guilty
EMAILPRINTFreestyle Releasing LLC
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 18 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Crime | Drama
Written by:
Sidney Lumet
T.J. Mancini
Robert J. McCrea
Directed by: Sidney Lumet
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 17, 2006
DVD: June 27, 2006
Running Time: 125 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong language and some violence
Starring Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Annabella Sciorra, Ron Silver, Linus Roache, Alex Rocco, and Richard Portnow
This film is based on the true story of Giacomo "Jackie Dee" DiNorscio. After years of federal investigation, 20 members of the New Jersey Lucchese crime family are brought to court on 76 charges of various crimes. Already in the midst of serving a 30-year sentence, Jackie is offered an opportunity to shorten his time by testifying against many of his closest friends. But Jackie refuses to betray his "family," and goes so far as to defend himself in what will ultimately become the longest criminal trial of its time. (Freestyle Releasing)
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson
Perhaps no director has so thoroughly explored the American concept of police work, prosecution and legal justice, and Find Me Guilty is a film that brings the 81-year-old filmmaker thematically full circle, back to his starting point, 1957's "12 Angry Men."
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
Shot quickly and cheaply in high-definition video and almost entirely on one set, the movie has almost zero visual energy, but it teems with snappy dialogue and the same carnival anarchy Lumet brought to "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Network."
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Find Me Guilty, Mr. Lumet's first feature film in seven years, catches him near the top of his game.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Despite being saddled with bad prosthetics and a ridiculous wig, Diesel displays more acting ability than in the testosterone-soaked genre where he has carved out a niche.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
This movie by its nature is not thrilling, but it is very genuinely interesting, and that is rare.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Find Me Guilty belongs to the odd couple of Dinklage and Diesel, whose volatile performance finally proves he is much more than an action star.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Lumet has retained a lifetime of technique and sharp instincts regarding how to make a courtroom full of people worth watching.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Lumet blatantly, simplistically stacks the decks in favor of the defendants, pitting them against mean, stupid cops and a cartoonishly nasty prosecutor.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
This may be the most Brechtian thing Lumet has ever done -- a movie that repeatedly challenges us to think and then to reconsider.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
The characters may be based on real people, with much of the dialogue culled directly from court transcripts, but Find Me Guilty plays the whole thing as comedy, and as everyone knows, putting a self-serious egomaniacal movie star in a bad hairpiece is comedy gold.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
All the acting is solid including a knock-'em-dead single scene by Annabella Sciorra as Jackie's ex-wife.
Read Full Review >Variety Eddie Cockrell
Part mob-trial thriller, part "dese 'n' dose" extended standup routine, character-rich pic plays like vintage Lumet, mining the grim comedy from life-and-death legal wranglings in the manner of "Dog Day Afternoon," "Prince of the City" and "The Verdict."
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ben Kenigsberg
Find Me Guilty is overlong and often sitcomy, but it's also pleasantly old-school, with a tone, soundtrack, and even a title-card font that suggest a mellow but not senile Woody Allen.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
A new courtroom comedy that finds Diesel chewing scenery in a role originally intended, and seemingly custom-made, for Joe Pesci.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
A sharp-looking Mob drama with a gooey moral center.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Most Mafia movies are unduly sympathetic, but this one takes the cake. Peter Dinklage is excellent as the mob's chief lawyer.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The lack of irony, let alone ambiguity, in an upside world in which mobsters are the underdogs, should sink the film, but Lumet's laid-back professionalism and Diesel's big-hearted performance give it an affable buoyancy.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Ultimately works a great deal better than you might expect.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The credits say DiNorscio, who died during filming in 2004, never informed on anyone. But is that such a great thing? If you live in a sewer, is it so terrible to be a rat?
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
There's never a question which side the movie is rooting for during the trial, and the light tone trivializes what might have been a much more intriguing exploration of the American legal system.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
An old-style mob movie based on a real court case and a real character - a colorful character - Find Me Guilty is about loyalty, family, and a bunch of good fellas.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Sadly, Lumet's skill at bringing out the juice in actors isn't enough to save the film from overkill.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Teresa Wiltz
Though we were wooed by Diesel -- notwithstanding that rug -- we were less enamored with the film's scraggly script. Find Me Guilty is a courtroom drama (much of the dialogue is culled from court transcripts) without a whole lot of drama going on.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The film is dreary and attenuated, the tedium broken only by the occasional golden moment when one of the stellar supporting players - Ron Silver as the principled presiding judge who alternately tolerates and quashes Jackie's antics, Peter Dinklage as the lead defense attorney or Annabella Sciorra as Jackie's ex - manages to cut through the clutter.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
It's no wonder Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty had trouble finding a distributor. Its target audience is behind bars.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
The best I can say about his (Diesel)performance is that it's charmingly terrible.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Patcat L. gave it a10:
One of the best movies since Good fellows. How did you get from the Brunos to the Lascees. I took a cab!!! I almost fell over laughing. I love the part on how Judge Fienstien and Jackie build a Bond, I love the part on how the judge handles Jackies Mothers death, I hope all judges would show respect and compassion as judge Fienstein showed Jackie. I give the movie two thumbs up!!!
Chris F. gave it an8:
I don't get the complaints about this film. What seems to get lost among viewers is these are not nice guys. You are not suppose to root for them. That being said the film is framed by Peter Dinkage's character and the DA. One talks about be a nation of laws and the other screams when he hears that one of the jury thinks Jackie is cute and reminds us all that they (Jackie and his buddies) kill people. There is no moral judgement made by this movie. You have to figure it out for yourselves. I will take a film like this every time. Disel and Dinkage are both excellent.
cybrswt gave it an8:
This was a good movie, I really liked the story and the acting in this.
Jim G. gave it a3:
Stereotypical mobster movie from a different angle - draws in stereotypical mobster film actors. Yeah, based on real story, but same old stuff.
Mark B. gave it an8:
Octogenarian Sidney Lumet's latest courtroom movie (based on real-life events and raiding actual transcripts for much of its dalogue) doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same series of breaths as his two genre-defining classics Twelve Angry Men and The Verdict. In classic Roger Corman/ Larry Cohen low-budget fashion, the non-courtroom scenes appeared to have been shot inside somebody's house. The courtroom scenes are lit in such a way as to suggest thaty the film stock somehow got left outside in the sun for several days. And whether Vin Diesel let his hair grow or is wearing a rug, his foliage looks only slightly more convincing than what the Hair Weave guy used to wear when he used to break into the Late, Late Show at 3 AM. So why is Find Me Guilty nevertheless so compulsively enjoyable? Largely because its central character, Jackie DiNorscio, a deeply flawed but strangely endearing mob goombah (a working stiff similar in some ways to Al Pacino's character in Donnie Brasco, only with a lampshade on his head) who demonstrates Stella Dallas-like loyalty to his "family" during an incredibly lengthy courtroom trial, is, as played by Diesel, so unforgettable. When playing amoral action figures, as in the Pitch Black movies, Diesel can be well-nigh unbearable, but when allowed to display an innate sweetness, as in Saving Private Ryan, The Fast and the Furious, and (apologies in advance) The Pacifier, Diesel is irresistably likable and funny. Of course, every great comedian needs good straight men, and as opposing attorneys, Linus Roache and Peter Dinklage more than fit the bill, while Ron Silver delivers a wonderfully subtle portrayal of a by-the-book judge who nevertheless comes to care about, respect and even sort of admire DiNorscio. There are certainly some ethical qualms involved with a movie that in essence manipulates its audience into rooting for a bunch of gangsters and thugs to beat the rap, but on the other hand, Find Me Guilty (like Twelve Angry Men and The Verdict) works as well as a training aid for future legal professionals as anything else: while it may be initially true that the man who acts as his own lawyer has a fool for a client, it's even more true that Diesel's DiNorscio innately understands something very important that nobody else in the courtroom seems to grasp: if a jury is being forced to slog through two years of seemingly endless testimony, one of the most effective ways to gain their favor is to KEEP THEM ENTERTAINED.
Ken G. gave it a4:
I honestly don't know who I was supposed to root for here. Obviously, I wasn't supposed to root for the D.A or the cops, who hardly come off well (or competent). Was I supposed to root for the real life mafia guys, who no doubt belonged in prison? If any of these guys were fleshed out and made interesting, then that might of worked, but only their leader (other then Diesel) was the least bit fleshed out, and he didn't come of well. Was I supposed to care whether or not Diesel is found guilty? The guy is already serving a 30 year-prison sentence. What possible effect could a conviction have on his life or future? Maybe, it would have worked if Diesel's antics were really as funny as film tries to convince us they are. We certainly had enough scenes of the people in the court rolling on the floor with laughter, I however didn't come close to laughing. Basically, this comes off as movie trying very hard to convince us that Diesel's character is alot more interesting then he is, at least in the moviie. Considering that the real life character he was playing was in the mafia, and spent a good part of his adult life in prison, the real life person might well have been a darker, and more interesting character then Diesel, who wants nothing more then to hang with his mafia buddies, who we are told again and again that he loves. Are we really supposed to share Diesel's view that the mafia guys are noble, working class heroes, and that their acquittal, if it comes, would be a victory for the little guy? The way film handle's its ending it certainly seems like we're supposed to see it like this. The filmmakers had a taken on this subject matter, that for lack of a better word, is just weird. However, Dinkage, as the defense lawyer is good. He is easily the best part of movie, and if his character had been the film's focus, then you might have had a better film.
Jadiannah L. gave it a10:
If there are certain types of movies you are drawn to yet you occasionally step out of the norm to see. This is a great movie to do so with. Giving an awarg winning performance now that he's finally been given the chance, Vin Diesel has a versatile gift to portray anyone he wants. I applaud you Mr. Diesel. Thank you Sidney for giving him the chance to prove to those who said "No, he can't" that "Yes, he can.... act."
