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My Cousin Vinny (1992) More at IMDbPro »

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While driving through the fictional Beechum County, Alabama, New Yorkers Billy Gambini (Ralph
Macchio) and his friend Stan Rothenstein (Mitchell Whitfield) accidentally neglect to pay for a can of tuna
after stopping at a convenience store. After they leave the store, the clerk is shot and killed off-camera,
and Billy and Stan, who match the descriptions of the murderers given by witnesses, are then pulled over
and detained in connection with the murder. Due to circumstantial evidence and a series of
miscommunications based on the boys assumption that they have merely been detained for shoplifting,
Billy ends up being charged with murder, and Stan is charged as an accessory.

The pair call Billy's mother, who tells her son that there is an attorney in the family, Billy's cousin, Vincent
LaGuardia "Vinny" Gambini (Joe Pesci), who travels to Beechum County accompanied by his fiancée,
Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei). Unfortunately, although he is willing to take the case, Vinny reveals
himself to be a neophyte personal injury lawyer from Brooklyn, New York, newly admitted to the bar (after
six attempts and six years) with no trial experience whatsoever.

Although Vinny manages to fool the uptight and conservative trial judge, Chamberlain Haller (Fred
Gwynne), about being experienced enough to take the case, his ignorance of basic court procedures and
abrasive, disrespectful attitude towards the judge gets him into trouble immediately. During the
arraignment, Vinny has no idea what he's supposed to do and angers Judge Haller with his ignorance of
whether or not to plead "guilty" or "not guilty" for Stan and Billy.

The next day, Vinny's ignorance and inexperience causes more harm, much to Billy and Stan's
consternation. Vinny does not even bother to cross-examine any of the witnesses in the probable cause
hearing. As their claims go unquestioned, it appears that the stuffy prosecutor, District Attorney Jim
Trotter III (Lane Smith), has an airtight case that will inevitably lead to a conviction at the trial. After
Vinny's poor showing at the hearing, Billy and Stan decide to fire him and use the public defender, but
Vinny asks for one more chance to prove himself.

After several weeks of preparation, the trial then opens with Vinny representing his cousin and the public
defender representing Stan. Despite some further missteps, including wearing a gaudy secondhand suit
to court (as his new suit fell in the mud) and sleeping through Trotter's opening statement, Vinny shows
that he can make up for his ignorance and inexperience with an aggressive, perceptive questioning style.
While the public defender stutters through a line of ill-prepared questions that appears to bolster the case
against the boys, Vinny quickly and comprehensively puts into question the testimony of the first witness
Sam Tipton (Maury Chaykin) who testifies seeing Bill and Stan arrive at the Sac-O-Suds parking lot
before he started cooking his breakfast grits and saw them flee from the scene after hearing a gunshot.
Vinny is able to show that 20 minutes had actually passed between those two events, not the five minutes
that Tipton claims, thus opening the door to the idea that there may have been two cars involved. Billy's
faith is rewarded, and Stan develops newfound respect and confidence for Vinny, firing the public
defender.

The next day, Vinny's cross-examinations of the remaining eyewitnesses are similarly effective. The
elderly Mrs Riley (Paulene Myers)'s testimony becomes suspect because she could not identify how
many fingers Vinny was holding up at half the distance she had been from the getaway car. Redneck
Ernie Crane's (Raynor Scheine) testimony is made to question his own identification of the "two men in a
green convertible" when he was forced to realize that he had made it looking through a dirty window, crud
covered screen, a bunch of leaf-covered trees, and seven bushes.

But on the third day of the trial, Trotter produces a surprise witness, George Wilbur, an FBI analyst who
testifies that his chemical analysis of the tire marks left at the crime scene shows that they are identical to
the tires on Billy's Buick Skylark. With only a brief recess to prepare his cross-examination and unable to
come up with a particularly strong line of questions, Vinny becomes frustrated and lashes out at Lisa by
taunting her about the usefulness of her wide-angle photographs of the tire tracks. She storms out,
leaving Vinny alone.

However, Vinny later realizes that that photo actually holds the key to the case: the flat and even tire
marks going over the kerb reveal that Billy's car could not have been used for the getaway (The Buick
had an axle that connected the two wheels, and would make a tilted, not flat, impression of the lower tire
when going over the kerb. The tire marks are both flat, revealing the car that made the marks had an
independent wheel suspension system.) Vinny needs Lisa, an expert in automobiles, to testify to this. He
drags her into court, and during Vinny's questioning, they patch up their differences. Vinny then recalls
the FBI analyst, who concurs with Lisa that Billy's car did not produce the tracks.

Next, Vinny calls the local sheriff, who has run a records check at Vinny's request. The sheriff testifies
that two men resembling Billy and Stan were arrested a few days earlier in Georgia for driving a stolen
Pontiac Tempest, a car very similar in appearance and color to Billy's Buick Skylark, and in possession of
a gun of the same caliber used to kill the clerk. Trotter then respectfully moves to dismiss all the charges.

Throughout the film, Vinny and Judge Haller play a game of cat-and-mouse over Vinny's qualifications.
Haller first discovers that, despite Vinny's claims that he tried "quite a few" murder cases, there exist no
records of anybody named Vincent Gambini trying any case in New York State. Aware that Judge Haller
will not let him be Stan and Billy's legal council if he finds Vinny to be inexperienced, Vinny then begins a
series of lies by claiming that he had his name changed during a previous career as a stage actor and
continued to use the name when he opened a law practice. Vinny, believing that he should give the judge
the name of someone with the kind of resume he claimed to have, supplies the name of a prominent New
York attorney, Jerry Gallo. Unfortunately, Lisa later tells Vinny that Gallo passed away the previous week,
and when Haller learns this, Vinny claims that Haller misheard "Gallo" when Vinny actually said "Callo".
Finally, Lisa gets Vinny off the hook by calling his mentor, Judge Malloy from New York, who responds to
Haller's request by claiming that 'Jerry Callo' has a long and impressive trial history.

The film concludes with Haller apologizing for doubting Vinny and praising his skills as a litigator. Vinny
and Lisa then drive off together, discussing how they were able to fool the judge about Vinny's
qualifications and arguing about plans for their wedding.