When the culture conflict comedy My Cousin Vinnie hit theaters on March 13, 1992, critical response was mostly positive. Vincent Canby of The Times found it “inventive and enjoyable”, Peter Reiner of the Los Angeles Times called it “often funny”, and The Hollywood Reporter called it “a terrific variation on the story of a fish out of water and a man from Mars”. formula”.
One phrase you won’t find in any of these reviews is “Oscar worthy.” However, Vinny proved just that by winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress a year after its original theatrical release – one of the biggest disappointments in Oscar history and a trophy that will be both a blessing and a blessing. curse for its recipient. Marisa Tomei.
Her role as Mona Lisa Vito, the long-suffering bride and legal secret weapon of protagonist Joe Pesci, was a breakthrough for the Brooklyn actress, who spent her time off-Broadway in the world of soap operas and sitcoms. “I was new to the business and didn’t know how films work,” Tomei explained in 2017, “but Joe chose me for this role, then he took my hand and guided me immensely, so I was very lucky.”
“Vinnie” concerns a pair of NYU students who are falsely accused of murder while on a road trip through Alabama. They are so desperate for legal representation that they turn to the only lawyer they can afford: Vincent LaGuardia Gambini (Pesci), a cousin of one of the defendants and a freshman who just passed the bar after six attempts.
Pesci roars into town in a Cadillac convertible at the eleven and a half minute mark; in the DVD audio commentary, director Jonathan Lynn calls it, with typically British restraint, “the stellar entry”. And that’s an accurate assessment of Pesci’s position – he had just won an Oscar for his menacingly funny performance in Goodfellas, and Vinnie was one of his first attempts at jumping from supporting role to leading role.
But Pesci was not the only star to appear on the scene; Tomei chewing gum elicits the first two laughs of the scene, first with his response to his claim that it sticks out “like a sore thumb” – “Oh yes, you’re mixing” – and then her heartbroken realization: “I bet Chinese food here is terrible.”
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It is noteworthy that Pesci concedes this laugh to her and continues to do so throughout the film, playing George with his Gracie (although she is clearly smarter). A smaller actor might try to upstage her, but Pesci has stolen scenes in movies like Raging Bull and Easy Money before; he knew how to back off and let his colleagues shine. And this principle of generosity is most evident in the courtroom climax, when Vinnie puts the Mona Lisa on the podium as an automotive expert (she worked in her father’s garage) giving evidence exonerating his clients.
It’s understandable why the shy Vinnie falls in love with the Mona Lisa again. She captivates everyone, from the judge to the jury, the audience and, in turn, moviegoers. Credible, fiery, funny and energetic, he and Pesci turn what could have been caricature into down to earth, empathetic characters.
But My Cousin Vinnie is not what we think of as an “Oscar movie” and Tomei’s film is not what is usually considered an “Oscar performance”. Credit provided to 20th Century Fox: when the film was an unexpected commercial success ($52 million on an $11 million budget), the studio spent a portion of that profit on the Up Your Way campaign, paying for it with a Best Supporting nomination. the actress — along with Judy Davis (Husbands and Wives), Joan Plowright (Charmed April), Vanessa Redgrave (Howards End) and Miranda Richardson (Damages), is a formidable competition indeed.
If the nomination came as a surprise, then Tomei’s victory over an outstanding opponent came as a shock. She was a veteran-beating rookie, an American television actress hosting top foreign playwrights, and, perhaps most importantly, the only comic performance in a quartet of searing dramatic twists. And for all these reasons, when Jack Palance opened the envelope and named Tomei, Dorothy Chandler’s pavilion was shocked.
Maybe the uniformity of Tomei’s competitions offset each other in her favor. She may have had an advantage on the home court. Or maybe in a flurry of dramatic performances, Mona Lisa Vito’s comedic joy was a breath of fresh air.
Our Reviews of 10 Best Picture Oscar Nominees
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“Don’t look up.” Two astronomers discover a comet heading straight for Earth. When they break the bad news, the President of the United States has other thoughts she needs to pay attention to besides the impending disaster.
“Drive my car.” The theater director is experiencing the death of his wife, staging the play “Uncle Vanya”. A chauffeur appointed by the theater troupe drives him to and from work, holding back his own huge emotional reserves.
“Liquorice Pizza”. In Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming-of-age novel, a child performer who has reached the peak of teenage awkwardness ages as he moves out of his professional niche. His encounter with 20-year-old Alana, with whom he immediately falls in love, sets the stage for the plot.
Nightmare Alley. A swindler with empty pockets and a mysterious past joins the sordid world of backcountry carnivals in the 1930s. He soon begins cycling between women, including a clairvoyant whose husband once had a successful mentalistic act.
“The Power of the Dog” Phil Burbank has played cowboys his entire adult life, raising cattle on his family’s Montana ranch for decades. When his brother George marries a widow with a teenage son, the family dynamic is disrupted for life.
“West Side Story.” A remake of one of Steven Spielberg’s most famous Broadway musicals – a modern interpretation of Romeo and Juliet – centers on the forbidden love between Tony and Maria, who are involved with two rival street gangs on Manhattan’s West Side in the 1950s.
Or maybe it was a big mistake. Rumors spread that the confused Palance had awarded the prize to Tomei and not the “legitimate” winner. At the time, Palance was 74 years old, which added a touch of ageism to this tall tale. The rumor first appeared in print a year later, in The Hollywood Reporter, with its origin attributed to an unnamed “former son-in-law of a prominent Academy Award winner”; in the following months, it will hit Entertainment Weekly and Variety, among others.
Everyone will do their best to insist that Tomei’s victory was legitimate; The academy refuted this rumor for anyone who was willing to listen. “If such a scenario ever happened,” said Roger Ebert, “the Price Waterhouse people backstage would just come on stage and point out the mistake. They are not shy.” (And that’s actually what happened during the La La Land and Moonlight mess in 2017, though it was hard to tell from all the buzz on stage.) But it became a case of the Streisand effect when these fixes ultimately only helped the story spread.
It didn’t help that these publications often took the opportunity to brand Tomei as unworthy. EW explained the persistence of the rumor, noting that “she seems to have made a few enemies along the way,” quoting a producer (unnamed, of course) who claimed the award had changed her. Variety also cited an anonymous director in their feature titled “The Poisoning of Tomei” as suggesting that the actor was fickle and overly ambitious.
Tomei did her best to ignore the rumors, even making fun of them in her monologue during Saturday Night Live in 1994. But it was a brave face. “When I was younger, it hurt my feelings,” Tomei told The Times in 2017. “Actually, I was very ashamed. But on the other hand, it’s a load [expletive]. I think it had more to do with the role I played – it was comedic and not upper class. To be honest, I think it was more like classism.”
She is right, of course, and not only in character. Comedy performers are treated as second-class citizens at the academy, and while there are rare exceptions, they rarely win Oscar nominations, let alone statuettes. And there seems to have been a class bias against Tomei herself, the working-class actress who won a prize among acting kings like Plowright and Redgrave and was subsequently (albeit anonymously) punished in the press for getting too big for her pants. .
Tomei took her bumps. When her post-Vinnie film roles fizzled out, she returned to the theater and became a mainstay of the New York scene. Her film roles, though less frequent, were more juicy; they paid off with two more Oscar nominations for In the Bedroom (2000) and The Wrestler (2008), as well as a role in one of the most popular film franchises of the time. If Tomei has learned anything from Vito’s Mona Lisa, it’s how to turn an underestimate into a triumph.