Find Me Guilty 2006

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: It's best to approach Find Me Guilty as a showcase for Diesel, who is finally beginning to prove he's more than the next-generation Van Damme. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Minor but well-crafted. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: It falls short of vintage Lumet while playing to his strengths as an actor's director who's built a career on themes of moral ambivalence. Read more

G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle: Lumet is back on top of his game -- Find Me Guilty is his first feature after the awful 1999 remake of Gloria, and the reason is his strong grasp of characters who have a point of view. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: For the first time in years Vin Diesel has a project that reminds us why he was tabbed to be a movie star in the first place. Read more

Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A few good performances can't carry a sluggishly written and directed movie that you may want to rename Find Me an Exit. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: It takes some time to accept the miscast Diesel in a role that even he'd probably concede would be a better fit for Pesci, but Diesel delivers his liveliest and funniest performance in ages. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: Diesel isn't amusing, so he merely comes off as a showy actor in a bad wig. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Starting in 1987, the Lucchese trial crawled on for a historic 21 months, and the movie feels like it lasts twice that long. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This may be the most Brechtian thing Lumet has ever done -- a movie that repeatedly challenges us to think and then to reconsider. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: To the charge of squandering credibility despite being based on a true case: guilty. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Peter Dinklage is excellent as the mob's chief lawyer. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Slow, repetitive, flat and altogether wrongheaded, using suspect editing of a true story to make us celebrate a bunch of vicious crooks. Read more

Christy Lemire, Deseret News, Salt Lake City: If you didn't know you were watching Vin Diesel in Find Me Guilty, you wouldn't know you were watching Vin Diesel. And that's a compliment. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: As Vin Diesel plays him in a likable, image-adjusting turn -- prosthetically fat, thick of Jersey accent -- Jackie (who died in 2004) was about as sweet as a career criminal can be. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A pleasing return of sorts to Lumet's training in the early years of TV. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Although Find Me Guilty presents Mr. Lumet and company in top form, the film does not belong in the top tier of the director's work. But in important moments, it touches that tier, and for that audiences will be grateful. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: The whole thing might backfire were it not for Diesel's commanding performance, a tribute to Lumet's storied magic touch with actors if ever there was one. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: [Diesel's] groping around in the role, as with Jackie's clumsy attempts at courtroom decorum, gradually wears away resistance. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: You can't build a modern-day Crucible out of one crook's refusal to rat out a bunch of pimps and loan sharks. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: It's one thing to project sympathetic qualities onto fictional gangsters like the Corleones and the Sopranos; it's another to make protagonists out of actual members of the Lucchese crime family. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: [Lumet's] crowning masterpiece. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It's hard to do anything in court that hasn't been done before. It's a static situation, and points are scored in tiny increments. No big witness-stand breakdowns, no tearful confessions. Thus, boredom creeps in. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Not the best work Lumet has done, but it's worthwhile viewing for anyone who likes gangsters, courtrooms, and what happens when the two are brought together. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This movie by its nature is not thrilling, but it is very genuinely interesting, and that is rare. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Sitting through the belabored courtroom drama Find Me Guilty feels like a particularly prolonged session of jury duty. Read more

Eddie Cockrell, Variety: 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 more

Ben Kenigsberg, Village Voice: 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 more

Teresa Wiltz, Washington Post: Diesel infuses the Lucchese family made man with a convincing cocktail of sweetness and rage. Read more