Legally Blonde Has The Exact Same Plot As A 1992 Legal Comedy Starring Joe Pesci And Marisa Tomei

Legally Blonde shares a surprising number of thematic and plot commonalities to another legal comedy from a decade prior: My Cousin Vinny. A movie with tremendous cultural impact, Legally Blonde stars Reese Witherspoon as the effervescent Elle Woods. Elle goes to Harvard Law to win back her love, and initially she does her best to conform to what everyone expects from a lawyer. However, Elle ultimately succeeds when she embraces pink instead of black and is true to herself.

Legally Blonde shares several similarities with the 1992 legal comedy My Cousin Vinny. The movie stars Joe Pesci playing Vincent “Vinny” Gambini, who recently passed the bar after multiple failed attempts. Vinny drives from New York City to Alabama to represent his young cousin for a murder he did not commit. Vinny sticks out in Alabama for the way he talks and the way he dresses. But Vinny wins the case when he uses his bold Italian-American habits and relies on the help of his support system, just like Elle did.

Legally Blonde & My Cousin Vinny Are Weirdly Similar Fish-Out-Of-Water Legal Comedies

Reese Witherspoon's Elle Woods & Joe Pesci's Vinny Gambini Try To Fit In But Succeed By Standing Out

At first, Elle Woods is an outcast at Harvard Law School, the “Marilyn Monroe” in a sea of “Jackie Kennedys.” Similarly, Vinny Gambini is not taken seriously in court at the outset. The judge in My Cousin Vinny finds Vinny’s leather jacket disrespectful court attire and Vinny’s accent unintelligible. Both Elle and Vinny buckle down on their studies after being chastised. Elle is mentored by her new love interest to buckle down and do the work. Similarly, Vinny’s case begins to turn around when his fiancée, Marisa Tomei’s Mona Lisa Vito, studies the legal code and starts giving him helpful information.

In Legally Blonde, Elle finds her full power when she stops trying to fit in. Elle embraces her signature pink in court, having already earned the trust of her celebrity client by keeping the client’s alibi confidential, while every other lawyer in the firm would have disclosed it. Elle wins the case with her unimpeachable knowledge of perm maintenance, breaking a witness during cross-examination.

That draws parallels to My Cousin Vinny, where Vinny struggles throughout the movie to fit the mold of a genteel Southern lawyer, even landing himself a contempt of court charge. But when Vinny leans into his lifetime of debating his Italian-American family, he discovers his cross-examination weapon. The coup de grâce is when he calls his own fiancée as a hostile witness - they’re in a fight and she’s not speaking to him - for her expertise as an automotive expert. In a captivating scene, Vinny wins the case and makes up with Mona Lisa by showing that he did need her help the whole time.

Vinny and Elle need encouragement from others to believe in their own potential. But once they master the expectations placed upon them, Elle and Vinny surpass those expectations by winning cases in their distinctive, authentic styles. My Cousin Vinny and Legally Blonde are two top-tier legal comedies.

My Cousin Vinny Is The More Accurate Courtroom Movie

Pesci's Vinny Uses An Unorthodox But Effective Cross Examination Technique

Legally Blonde is inspirational, but it’s not the most legally accurate movie. The speed with which Elle goes from being a first-year intern to being the lead attorney of a very public murder trial is especially glaring. Elle’s video essay, while entertaining, would probably not suffice to secure a place at an Ivy League law school. She demonstrates her comfort with legal jargon by saying, “I object” when someone catcalls her, which is endearing but not exactly accurate. Overall, Legally Blonde is style over substance when it comes to procedural details.

In contrast to that, lawyers often point to My Cousin Vinny as fairly accurate in its approach to courtroom scenes and cross-examination techniques. Vinny’s unorthodox approach builds convincing, evidence-based arguments, like when he uses his new knowledge of grits’ cooking time to force one witness to admit his timeline could be inaccurate. The judge’s control over the trial is an excellent cinematic example of judicial authority. Furthermore, it’s far more believable for a first-time litigator to represent his cousin in a small-town court than for a public figure to replace a major firm with a first-year law student.

Why Legally Blonde Left A Much Bigger Cultural Imprint Than My Cousin Vinny

Legally Blonde's Message Of Self-Empowerment Is Timelessly Feel-Good

Legally Blonde crushed at the box office, making its budget back in its opening weekend. Reese Witherspoon did not get an Oscar nod for her role of Elle Woods, but comedies are historically underrepresented in Academy Award consideration. However, this makes Marisa Tomei’s win for her role as Mona Lisa in My Cousin Vinny even more impressive. My Cousin Vinny has a small but dedicated fanbase that can quote Mona Lisa’s iconic “biological clock” speech, but the movie never permeated popular culture in quite the same way as Legally Blonde.

Legally Blonde’s message of self-empowerment is timeless. Legally Blonde’s enduring power leads to new versions of the original movie - Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde; the Legally Blonde musical; and now the upcoming third installment - keeping Legally Blonde’s iconic outfits and quotability in vogue. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Witherspoon said she has women come up to her weekly saying that Legally Blonde inspired them to pursue law. Legally Blonde’s message of self-love will never go out of style.

Director Robert Luketic

Release Date July 13, 2001

Studio(s) Type A Films , Marc Platt Productions , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Writers Amanda Brown , Karen McCullah Lutz , Kirsten Smith

Runtime 96 Minutes

Sequel(s) Legally Blonde 2: Red , White & Blonde

Budget $18 Million