Marisa Tomei as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny

Best Supporting Actress at the 65th Annual Oscars (1992)

Notable Quote:

“It’s called disclosure, you dickhead.”

Synopsis:

When New Yorker Bill (Ralph Macchio) is wrongfully charged with murder in Alabama (wrong place to get arrested), he calls on his lawyer cousin Vinny (Joe Pesci) to defend him. Vinny and fiancé Mona Lisa (Marisa Tomei) are the two most New York people to ever walk the earth, so hijinks ensue when they go to the south.

The character:

Mona Lisa Vito presents as a ditzy “out-of-work hairdresser” but she’s actually the smartest person in the room. First of all, she has an encyclopedic knowledge of cars: to the point of being able to tell you whether a specific model had a certain part in any given year. Kelley Blue Book, eat your heart out. But even outside of that, she’s a fast learner: despite fiancé Vinny being a law school graduate, she picks up the practice much more quickly, just from, ya know, reading a book. In a better version of events, she’d dump her fiancé and pull a Legally Blonde (can confirm that I would watch a Mona Lisa spinoff).

But alas, she finds herself stuck in a nagging girlfriend role. At one point, she literally stomps around about how he needs to set a wedding date because her biological clock is ticking, like … eek. In general, Vinny tends to dismiss her useful advice and constant emotional support, instead opting to take out his stress on her. Of course, when she finally gets fed up, he realizes that she’s got knowledge and evidence that will make his entire case, and he has to physically (no exaggeration) drag her back into the courtroom so that she can win this thing for him. Dump this man, you’re hot and fun!

The performance:

This is Marisa Tomei’s breakout role, and that’s absolutely justified: she makes the movie. Mona Lisa is a broadly painted character, but Tomei is so charming that she can turn insulting, silly bits, like the aforementioned biological clock meltdown, into genuine hilarity. Whether she’s squawking about the cruelty of shooting deer, or excellently debating the cause of a leaky faucet, Tomei is always bright and fun. I’ll be honest: lots of the movie’s humor doesn’t work for me, but Tomei never misses. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention her many incredible outfits (the jumpsuit in the biological clock scene!). But this really isn’t a performance that requires much explication: it’s not overly deep, or layered, but it’s incredibly endearing.

The movie:

My Cousin Vinny might be the most disappointing movie that I’ve watched for this column so far. It’s not that it was awful (it’s fine), but given the love so many folks have for it, I was expecting to be amazed, and I was not. It’s an incredibly goofy film, with a lot of obvious gags, and silly misunderstandings that drag on to the point of being irritating, and like, pratfalls into the mud level humor. The obvious exception is the last twenty minutes of the movie, which is genuinely excellent, and probably the reason that so many folks love the film, but man, the hour and forty minutes that it takes us to get there are a bit of a drag. (But please sound off in the comments if you’re a fan: I genuinely want someone to explain what works for them about this movie!).

Was the Oscar deserved?

Yes, Tomei is responsible for every one of the movie’s most iconic moments.