Formative Performance: Marisa Tomei in “My Cousin Vinny”

I love me a good sass-mouthed broad, and there are few characters I’ve seen that fit the description more than Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny.

People were not happy when Marisa Tomei won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in My Cousin Vinny. In fact, this win became the center of one of Oscar history’s meanest rumors – that Jack Palance read the wrong name at the ceremony and no one bothered to correct the mistake.

Obviously, this is a lot of “jus jellus” B.S., because the Academy would never let such a mistake go uncorrected. But the rumor still gained a certain amount of traction. People wondered why Tomei, a first-time nominee, won over more prestigious actresses in more prestigious movies.

I can’t comment on that because I haven’t seen three of the other performances, and I watched Howard’s End so long ago that I barely remember. I honestly don’t care about the competition from that year. What I care about is the fact that a purely comedic performance was nominated for an Academy Award and WON.

I love Tomei in this part. Every aspect of her performance is perfect, from the way she gestures to a jerk in a bar with her pinky finger to point him out to her fiance, to the way she reluctantly takes the stand at the end of the film as though it’s the last place in the world she wants to be – until she sees the flaw in the case and winds up saving the day. She’s hilarious in every scene of this movie and I’m so glad she went on to receive two other Academy Award nominations just to prove the haters wrong.