The real story behind 'Find Me Guilty' doesn't help this mobster flick

An old-style mob movie based on a real court case and a real character - a colorful character - Find Me Guilty is about loyalty, family, and a bunch of good fellas.

Vin Diesel, wearing a lug's smile and a head of hair, portrays Giacomo "Jackie Dee" DiNorscio, a career soldier with the New Jersey Lucchese crime clan. Busted in a drug deal, Jackie Dee's been sent to prison, but the feds are willing to shorten his time - and serve him some fine cuisine - if he testifies against his cohorts and pals. Jackie Dee refuses to do so.

The trial, which took 21 months in 1987-88, brought charges against Jackie Dee and 19 others linked to the Lucchese group - 76 criminal conspiracy counts in all. With that many defendants and lawyers - not to mention news media on hand - the epic proceedings already had the air of a circus. And when Jackie Dee opted to forgo a lawyer and defend himself, the courtroom became more like an Atlantic City comedy club. The only thing missing from his cross-examinations was a rim shot.

Sidney Lumet has a luminous history with this stuff: His fact-based crime pics teem with cops and mobsters, defense lawyers and prosecutors, marching the high and low of the legal system. Find Me Guilty, alas, is no Serpico or Dog Day Afternoon. It's not even a Prince of the City or a Q & A.

A title-card announces that most of the dialogue was taken straight from the actual courtroom transcripts; Jackie Dee's dese-and-dose banter, his jokes, his easy way with the jury, are all verbatim, and clearly Lumet was seduced.

But while Diesel brings a tough-guy insouciance to the role - "I'm a gagster, not a gangster," he tells the jury - there isn't much depth there, and his friends, foes and fellow defendants seem straight from central casting. If the new season of The Sopranos had been in production, the entire gang could have moved over to the HBO series' set and picked up some extra cash. (In fact, several Find Me Guilty cast members are Sopranos veterans, most notably Annabella Sciorra, who here plays Jackie Dee's wife.) Peter Dinklage, of The Station Agent, fares somewhat better as a defense attorney who begins to admire the genius behind Jackie Dee's japery.

But Lumet paints federal prosecutor Sean Kierney (Linus Roache) and his team of agents and attorneys as no-fun bureaucrats. Kierney becomes the villain of the tale, trying to put an end to our hero's goofy stand-up routines and his compatriots' flamboyant lifestyles - which may or may not be funded by deadly criminal acts.

There's nothing wrong with a wisecracking wise guy, but for all its ripped-from-the-headlines verisimilitude, Find Me Guilty sometimes feels like it should have been called Find Me My Cousin Vinny.

Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/stevenrea.

Find Me Guilty ** 1/2 (out of four stars)

Produced by Bob Yari, Robert Greenhut, George "Zakk" Vitetzakis, T.J. Mancini and Bob Debrino, directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Robert McCrea, Mancini and Lumet, photography by Rob Fortunato, distributed by Freestyle Releasing.

Running time: 2 hours, 3 mins.

Giacomo DiNorscio. . . Vin Diesel

Ben Klandis. . . Peter Dinklage

Sean Kierney. . . Linus Roache

Judge Finestine. . . Ron Silver

Parent's guide: R (violence, profanity)

Playing at: area theaters