Diesel effectively handles the role and gives the character the needed dramatic and comedic muscle to sustain the audience’s interest...
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"Find Me Guilty" finds Sidney Lumet pushing Vin Diesel´s acting chops to the limit. While it might seem from his past films ("The Fast and The Furious", "The Chronicles of Riddick") that Diesel is no more than an action film hero cut out from the same mold as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lumet´s latest film proves otherwise. Diesel´s portrayal of gangster Giacomo "Jackie Dee" DiNorscio is great, inspired fun and allows Diesel the opportunity to flex his abilities with shining results.
Gaining about 25 pounds for the role and wearing make-up that makes him look like he´s in his 40´s, Diesel portrays true-life mafioso Jackie Dee. When the film begins Jackie is asleep in his New Jersey home when his cousin, a low level gangster, enters his home and shoots Jackie four times (the scene plays an important role later in the film). While recovering in the hospital the police asks Jackie to give up who shot him, but Jackie refuses, saying he had his eyes closed the whole time; forever loyal to his "family."
Some time later Jackie is brought up on drug possession and dealing charges and sentenced to 30 years in prison. While serving the first part of his sentence, he is brought an offer by a federal prosecutor. The prosecutor wants him to rat on his mafia family, under the RICO act. Corroborating would mean the end of his prison term but Jackie refuses. In a very bold move, Jackie fires his attorney (who has cost him 300 thousand dollars in legal fees) and decides to represent himself in a trial that lasts nearly two years.
"I'm not a gangster. I'm a gagster," Jackie tells the jury in his happy-go-lucky kind of way. Even though some of his remarks in the trial are rather crass, everything he says is right from the heart. Jackie charismatically wins over the jury and his 20 fellow, on trial, family members. Some of whom are suspect of Jackie wanting to defend himself, thinking he´s only looking out for himself (an interesting notion considering he has no experience in the court room other than when he´s been on trial). It´s here, in the court scenes, where Diesel really comes alive. He smolders with a sharp wit, grand manner and handles the role with great ease. He almost instantly makes you forget that Jackie is a man who is probably guilty of the numerous crimes he is suspected of; he´s not a good guy but you sure want to take him out for a beer afterward.
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[release]18952[/release]