Why I love Marisa Tomei’s per­for­mance in My Cousin Vinny

Among the many things to love about Jonathan Lynn’s 1992 court­room com­e­dy My Cousin Vin­ny, from its gar­ish car­i­ca­tures to its snap­py script to its hilar­i­ous depic­tion of a mur­der tri­al, the film endures to this day large­ly because of Marisa Tomei. Her co-star Joe Pesci may be placed front and cen­tre as Vin­cent LaGuardia Gam­bi­ni, a per­son­al injury lawyer and through-and-through New York­er who is more than a lit­tle slow on the uptake, but it’s undoubt­ed­ly Tomei who steals the show – she deserved­ly earned the film its only Acad­e­my Award for her per­for­mance as Vinny’s fiancée Mona Lisa Vito.

Tomei gives a mas­ter­class in mak­ing the most out of lim­it­ed screen time, tak­ing a sup­port­ing role that could eas­i­ly have been reduced to a sassy side piece and imbu­ing it with emo­tion­al depth, humour and heart. Her deliv­ery of screen­writer Dale Launer’s dia­logue is par­tic­u­lar­ly mem­o­rable: ​“You blend,” she says sar­cas­ti­cal­ly to Vin­ny after he claims that his cow­boy boots will help him mix with the towns­folk in rur­al Alaba­ma. The com­bi­na­tion of Lisa’s big hair, swanky shades, bright red lip­stick and min­i­mal leather-clad out­fit marks her out as a con­fi­dent woman, and Tomei fol­lows her out­landish look through with impec­ca­ble com­ic tim­ing and a sol­id Noo Yoik accent.

“My bio­log­i­cal clock is tick­ing like this!” Lisa yells as she stomps her foot dra­mat­i­cal­ly on the floor in anoth­er stand­out moment. With Vin­ny in over his head in his first ever legal case, Lisa decides to raise the sub­ject of mar­riage with amus­ing con­se­quences while wear­ing a fig­ure hug­ging flo­ral one-piece sure­ly only Tomei could pull off. Lisa’s flam­boy­ant dress sense – com­plete with skimpy skirts, dia­man­té pat­terns and shoul­der pads you could land light air­craft on – is a vital aspect of her char­ac­ter. This is a woman who knows exact­ly who she is and what she wants.

Lisa is always one step ahead of Vin­ny. She is fierce­ly loy­al and sup­port­ive, not to men­tion smart, savvy and quick to learn. She is also, as we lat­er learn, some­thing of an auto­mo­tive expect, a fact which ulti­mate­ly helps to win the case for Vin­ny. She is the type of per­son who speaks her mind and doesn’t put up with any non­sense from any­one. Yes, she did work as a mechan­ic for a time, she tells a chuck­ling South­ern lawyer. And yes, she is cur­rent­ly out of work, she states mat­ter-of-fact­ly before an intim­i­dat­ing court. What of it? The most impor­tant les­son here is to be your­self, because being a woman in the real world is tough enough as it is.