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Life & Arts

Lumet squeezes by with 'Guilty'

by GERONIMO RODRIGUEZ
The Daily Cougar

For more than 40 years, Sidney Lumet has directed films that captured the gritty feel of a city better than anyone. His scenes aren't as flashy as Martin Scorsese's or as polished as Stanley Kubrick's, but Lumet is certainly a master when it comes to telling complex stories and getting the most out of actors.

Find Me Guilty is an exception to Lumet's rules in that it's more sentimental than many of his films. Other than that, Lumet does his thing in his latest film, showing the hustle and bustle that goes down in any courthouse in any big city. The veteran director also shows he can still push a solid performance out of any actor by having a pot-bellied Vin Diesel in the lead role, which is based on the life of mobster Jack DiNorscio.

DiNorscio defended himself in what became the longest U.S. Mafia trial in U.S. history; it lasted 21 months. At the start of the trial, DiNorscio resorts to telling jokes during his opening statement. "I'm not a gangster, I'm a gagster," a sloppy-looking Vin Diesel tells the jury. The lead prosecutor thinks DiNorscio's charm is growing on the jury, and the leader of the defense team thinks DiNorscio is only hurting the handful of other defendants being tried.

DiNorscio is portrayed as a fun guy; he gave his friends money when he had it, he loved messing around with women and he told jokes. Audiences' hearts will bleed for the character when his own gangster friends don't let him sit with them during lunchtime. And as much as I hate to say it, Diesel gives perhaps his finest performance of his adrenaline-filled career in Guilty.

Lumet once said, "There's no such thing as a small part. There are just small actors." These words come to life as you see Diesel's face plastered with make-up, his gray-streaked hair and a six-pack shaped into a round-shaped belly. Diesel squeezes out a convincing effort as the mobster-turned-Rusty Hardin.

But the film relies too much on DiNorscio's charisma to be a true Sidney Lumet film; it's as if someone dared Lumet to create a character who could smile at the end of the day. This isn't Q&A, Dog Day Afternoon or Serpico, all of which were directed by Lumet, but it works.
 

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