Fred Gwynne

The film's moderate artistic success rests on Lyne's unsettling soft-lit style and the resonant leading performances by Douglas, Archer, and Close, who brilliantly does all the work the screenplay doesn't...

The minor miracle of My Cousin Vinny is that—though the picture never scores any guffaws, the villains remain off-screen, and the conclusion is never in doubt—the movie's full two-hour running time passes so breezily.