My Cousin Vinny

The Hollywood Reporter/Hollywood Report
Thursday, March 5, 1992

'VINNY,' 'JUMP' SCORE IN FOX SNEAK PREVIEWS
By Martin A. Grove

Fox films: Studios typically run hot and cold. In the case of 20th Century Fox, which turned cold last summer after having had a red-hot year, things seem to be up once again.

… Fox and its chairman Joe Roth are enjoying sneak preview success, as I indicated here Wednesday, with "My Cousin Vinny" directed by Jonathan Lynn and starring Joe Pesci and Ralph Macchio…

…[For executive Tom] Sherak and Jonathan Lynn were on hand Tuesday to show "Vinny" to Santa Monica College's Cinema Plus preview class. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you there was virtually non-stop laughter for two hours. Oscar winner Pesci is at his very best. Marisa Tomei, who plays his girlfriend, is so outstanding that Academy members should her next year when they mark their nomination ballots for best supporting actress. (Tomei, by the way, was discovered by Garry Marshall, who cast her in Fox's 1984 comedy "The Flamingo Kid.")

How did Lynn, who's English, feel about tackling such quintessentially American material such as "Vinny," which revolves around a novice Brooklyn personal injury lawyer's efforts to get his cousin and cousin's best friend acquitted of a wrongful murder charge in a tiny Alabama town?

"I felt very hopeful about it," he replied. "I've worked in the theater all my life and I've done a lot of American plays in Britain. I've directed Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill and various other great American playwrights. I didn't feel unfamiliar with the subject matter just because I was a foreigner. It's really a question of working with the material and observing what you see around you."