Glorifying mobster Giacomo "Jackie" DiNorscio (remarkably well played by Vin Diesel of The Pacifier), director Sidney Lumet too shows the viewer the longest trial in US history from the perspective of the criminal side, invoking fond memories of his work on 12 Angry Men, Serpico, and scores of other projects he has worked on over the years that cast a dark shadow on our legal system, the police, and government in general. The movie starts off with Jackie getting shot multiple times by his cousin, ending up in a hospital bed clinging to life but unwilling to cooperate with the police to capture the gunman whom he professes to love. Such sets the stage for the fiercely loyal man to be set up on drug charges (completely guilty though, in a surprise twist for the director) which is later used as a bargaining chip for his cooperation in testifying against the crime family he has worked for in various capacities; The Lucchese Family.

The federal authorities obtained over 70 felony indictments against the twenty defendants and wanted someone higher up the food chain to strengthen their case with this being a RICO Act case (criminal conspiracies to commit various felonies are more complicated but have the benefit of mandatory sentencing and a relatively easy level of proof in many ways). Having been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the drug charge (largely due to ineffective counsel), Jackie has nothing to lose by cooperating except for years off of his sentence and his self worth as tied to his lot in life. The prosecutor has never lost a case, has thousands of items of evidence, scores of low level scum willing to testify, and the knowledge that he is fighting the good fight in the name of law & order but doesn't want to chance anything. Jackie turns him down and is subjected to a harsh beating, deciding to represent himself rather than throw away another bunch of money on the shyster who seemingly did little to stop his current sentence. In his eyes, he is already doing a lengthy sentence and has nothing to lose though the other defendants fear he will weaken their cases and make it clear that he will not live to do so if he messes up.

Thus began the court case lasting over 600 days back in the 1980's as shown in the movie. Basing major parts of the script on the transcripts of the case, director Lumet dispenses with fleshing out the codefendants in favor of focusing almost exclusively on DiNorscio, something of a gamble given Vin Diesel's roles in past flicks. Personally, I think Diesel is every bit as good an action hero as anyone else on the contemporary Hollywood list, if not better, but relying on him to carry the movie so completely opens up a lot of risk. Jackie's courtroom antics net him contempt of court fines, severe admonishment by the judge (well played by Ron Silver), and the alienation of his peers. Only co-counsel for his boss, a dwarf with the sharpest legal mind in the pack (Peter Dinklage as Ben Klandis), sees the possible benefit of Jackie's attempts to represent himself as anything but a theatrical stunt by an egomaniac. Ben counsels Jackie throughout the trial and defends his lack of polish and outrageous behavior upon seeing the jury respond to him favorably.

Throughout the movie, Jackie is given various chances to sever his case, cop a deal, or otherwise receive beneficial treatment but he turns down such advances as beneath his accepted lot in life; even convincing the other defendants that they stand a better chance of resisting. The end result of the trial is almost anticlimactic in that sense but it wasn't my biggest issue with the movie. No, my biggest issue was not the fine technical direction Lumet offered up or the way the admitted mobsters were portrayed almost like heroes, but the simple fact that by focusing solely on Jackie's side of the story, the other characters came across as little more than two dimensional shells of what they could have been. Give me a mob boss like Sonny Steelgrave any day of the week over Alex Rocco's sulking figure as Nick Calabrese. The same holds true for the others as well since they all look the parts and talk the parts but were not given the chance to fit their role as anything short of straw men to be knocked down.

Silver and Dinklage were the two known quantities in terms of acting skill and I am happy to report Diesel as providing a capable performance although the original script was designed for Joe Pesci (who almost certainly would have been superior given his roles in similar movies). Lumet is called an actor's director capable of getting the very best out of his casts and this was easily the case with Diesel, who may have earned some nods for the role where none of us would have expected him to pull it off so aptly. Even though the emphasis was on the anti-hero in question and the ending less than satisfying, I have to say that it was a sleeper hit of sorts for me and I rate it as Recommended as a result, for all the flaws here.

Picture: Find Me Guilty was presented in anamorphic widescreen color with an aspect ration of 1.78:1 that preserved "the aspect ratio of the original theatrical exhibition". It was clean enough and looked like it had some intended grain from time to time, with no major flaws observed. The majority of scenes were in the jail and court, each seeming to look like they were supposed to. There was a lot of detail that came across when watching the movie a second time that I had previously missed, with a number of visual elements subtly placed for attentive viewers. It wasn't a great looking movie but it was a very good looking DVD.

Sound: Vin Diesel is something of the darling of 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround given his extensive background in action movies and the audio presentation in English did incorporate this audio set up but the vast majority of focus was on the dialogue (it's a courtroom drama) so there really wasn't much use of anything except for the center channel of my home theatre. That said, the score was suitable and supported the thematic elements nicely, subtly weaving the audio tapestry rather than blaring it out as other titles have done. The balance between the vocals and the score were handled well and the subtitles in English and Spanish seemed accurate (and readable) upon my spot checking them.

Extras: There were some trailers and TV spots but the best extra was a short feature called Conversations with Sidney Lumet. Broken into a number of categories, he spoke about the elements of the film, Vin Diesel, and even his meeting with the real life Giacomo "Jackie" DiNorscio whom he met just before the mobster passed away. Lumet is not the most dynamic speaker in the world and I wished someone asked him some tougher questions but it did fill in the blanks at times with the aged director appearing to be a gentle soul. Perhaps a future release will include a commentary track with Lumet and Vin Diesel or other unannounced extras but given the almost indie nature of the distribution of the movie, I'm not going to hold my breath for them.

Final Thoughts: Find Me Guilty proved to be an interesting look at the longest trial in US History as much as a showcase for the now proven acting talents of actor Vin Diesel. Director Sidney Lumet has such experience with crime dramas, mob stories, courtroom fiction, and tales centering on New York City that his weak credentials in comedy were less of an issue; marking a decent movie despite the thematic limitations it offered. I was surprised at how much I liked the movie given the subject matter and way it was handled but this is largely due to the manner in which Lumet and Diesel showed some chemistry with working together. Check it out.