Reversal of Fortune (1990)

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The saga of Sunny Von Bulow has mystified those fascinated with the lifestyles of the rich and miserable since long before she went into that diabetic coma. Glenn Close narrates, as if from beyond the grave (or at least over the rainbow, having discovered bluer skies in sleep) the story of her seemingly fairy tale existence that starts off coldly, with the camera going far above the estates where there's a cold air of no emotion rising off of them. The story surrounds attorney Alan Derkowitz's efforts to clear her worldly husband Klaus (the Oscar Winning Jeremy Irons) of attempted murder. While the law students he works with have different ideas of his guilt or innocence, Silver reminds them that as the defense attorney, their job is to give the inkling of doubt whether they like the client or not.Irons is a combination of charming, creepy, funny and loving, so there is a benefit of doubt there, even though I was never quite sure. Not yet famous outside of the theater, Christine Baranski is coolly elegant as Klaus's latest conquest, with Julie Hagerty appearing in an unforgettable cameo as "Dark Shadows" star Alexandra Isles who was his mistress. Every detail shows that the world of the ultra rich is perhaps even more miserable than being poor, with Close showing Sunny's frailties, insecurities, anger, fear of showing love (even to her own children) and ultimate acceptance of her fate, as if living death through a coma freed her soul from her earthly woes. Ironically, when Sunny Con Bulow did pass away, it was very little fanfare, only a footnote towards this movie and the trial that inspired it. The glamorous look it takes on prevents it from looking as if it was made for TV, although references to the sad lives of other poor little rich girls (all documented in TV movies) is sadly obvious.

With its opening long shot panning above numerous estates in Rhode Island, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE inks a plaintive sentiment to this morally ambiguous true story, the case of socialite Sunny von Bülow (Close), who descends into an unexplained brain-dead coma in the 1980, and her current husband, Claus von Bülow (Irons) is charged with attempted murder by an overdose of insulin injection. Against all the odds to his trial, Claus hires Alan Dershowitz (Silver) as his defence and eventually gets away with the indictment while the truth remains a moot point. In real life Sunny died in 2008 after almost 28 years as a human vegetable and Alan would be involved as an appellate adviser in another notorious case of O.J. Simpson. Adapted by Nicholas Kazan from Dershowitz's 1985 book REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: INSIDE THE VON BÜLOW CASE, the film is directed by Franco-Swiss director Barbet Schroeder as the follow-up of BARFLY (1987), when he firstly took a stab in Hollywood. Overall, the film garners 3 Oscar nominations including BEST DIRECTOR for Schroeder and ADAPTED SCREENPLAY for Kazan, plus a substantial win for Irons in the BEST LEADING ACTOR race. So, let's discuss Irons' performance first, wearing a bald wig, Irons' Claus establishes his ambiguity through his Englishman suaveness (from both his style of intonation and vague slyness in his demeanour) and an outward moral superiority. It is a perfect exemplar of his screen persona, fragilely lithe, intelligently elusive, and poisonously charming. In my book, he completes a more demanding and inspiring work in Cronenberg's DEAD RINGERS (1988, 7/10), but I have no qualm of his victory, however, it is patent that alongside a fertile career-path, he hasn't been invited back for another nomination since, which may partially bespeaks that the academy reckons his win is quite enough to acknowledge his versatility in a generous gesture. A much more perplexing case here is Glenn Close, who was on a hot streak in the 80s and conquered 5 Oscar nominations in 7 years, is completed snubbed here, one possible reason is the category misplacement, because Close is first-billed, thus she might be considered as a lead, however her screen-time is massively less than Irons and Silver (a very coincidental admixture), but she is superb as the rich woman who has nothing to live for, cannot be satisfied sexually and emotionally by her distant husband, stranded in the shore of aberrant medication, while Close manages to squeeze compassion out of the audience, simultaneously, her Sunny is a monstrous pain-in-the-neck to be around, Close influences great driving force for the film, not the least as the solemn voice-over narrating the story in a flashback structure, which brings about a verisimilitude of an uncanny experience where Sunny is coming back from her vegetative state. She is my current win in supporting actress race if there was any justice for her hallow prestige and consistent caliber. Ron Silver as Alan himself, represents a more mundane facade on the case - the legal activity, although his supposedly dialectical speech can barely be convincing when one of his student Minnie (a young Felicity Huffman) threats to quit because she thinks Claus is not innocent and they should not defence the perpetrator, since it is impossible to erase the whiff of money-grubbing in the process, so within all his movements, at least one part serves as a justification for a more self-seeking cause, which is the sad reality of the legislative system, not so far away in Satan's service. Performance-wise, Silver and Sciorra (as his fellow college Sarah) are a far cry from the elite group of Irons and Close, in any rate, viewers are not interested in their stories at all. In hindsight, the film is an adamant advocate in defying our conception of "seeking the truth", truth only exists in those who are personally experienced in the particular event, as for outsiders, for the most part, we cannot get an unmitigated version of truth or whatsoever. Let's just forget the fanciful obsession and instead, try to reconcile with the world in a more pliable perspective, that is the spirit!

After seeing the previews, you can never get Jeremy Iron's voice out of your head, when he replies to a question with "you have no idea".Very effective narration by the great Glenn Close. His children also some into play, as well as the man playing Allen Dershewitz, and his whole legal team.Yes, you know he'll be acquitted but the telling takes the entire movie. I haven't seen it in many years, but parts of it just don't leave your memory. I do think that Sunny Von Bulow was a very troubled soul. Perhaps troubled by having too much money and everything she wanted for the asking.You've got to have the TIME to see the whole movie and appreciate its many twists and turns. But well worth the effort. And well worth seeing Jeremy Irons nail the part.

On 27 December 1979, the millionaire Sunny von Bülow (Glenn Close) is found in coma for the second time in her bathroom with an overdose of insulin. Her European husband Claus von Bülow (Jeremy Irons) is convicted for attempted murder of Sunny, but he hires the expensive Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) to revert his sentence. Dershowitz teams up with his students to collect evidences to disprove the accusation and prove the innocence of Claus. "Reversal of Fortune" is the dramatization of a true story based on the book of Alan M. Dershowitz. The originality of the screenplay is that it details the work of Dershowitz and his students to disprove the prosecution and the trial itself is just glanced. I do not like this type of inconclusive films based on true stories since the truth is not disclosed. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "O Reverso da Fortuna" ("The Reversal of the Fortune")