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Reversal Of Fortune on DVD (1990)

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Average rating: 59%
382093
3.0
from 437 members
 
Starring: Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Ron Silver, Fisher Stevens, Uta Hagen, Anabella Sciorra
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Studio: MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 106 mins
Certificate: 15
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Released: 04/08/2003

Brief synopsis of Reversal Of Fortune

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE, based on defence attorney Alan Dershowitz's book, is a hypnotically eerie exploration of a dark, ambiguous event in the life of a wealthy socialite couple. Dershowitz (Ron Silver) is hired by Claus von Bulow (Jeremy Irons) to defend him against charges that he attempted to murder his wife, Sunny (Glenn Close), who lies in a coma. As Dershowitz, aided by his eager law students, scrambles for ways to puncture the veracity of the charges against von Bulow, Sunny narrates flashback scenes that offer a frosted window into both the events leading up to her coma-inducing collapse and the strangely cold and alienating world of the superrich.
Irons's von Bulow, a brilliant Academy Award-winning characterisation, provides the creepy, complicated centre for a film in which every surface is slippery and every truth has trailing behind it a sinuous shadow of doubt. Silver energises the film with his portrayal of the tenacious, obsessive defence attorney, and Close adds a vital layer with her biting narration and her work in flashback scenes as a woman sadly drifting in a drug-addled haze through her moneyed world. Director Barbet Schroeder, who garnered Academy Award nominations for both Best Director and (with co-writer Nicholas Kazan) Best Screenplay, orchestrates with a light touch, preserving the buoyancy of a film that is deeply textured yet tight as a riddle.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Jeremy Irons won an Oscar for his portrayal here of millionaire Claus von Bulow, who was found guilty of the attempted murder of his wife Sunny (Glenn Close), but acquitted on appeal. Even though there's no surprise about the outcome, this is a thoroughly absorbing and beautifully scripted drama, with events leading to the trial told in flashback and Close's comatose character bringing us up to date by a clever narration. Director Barbet Schroeder shoots The Great Gatsby-style setting with a documentary eye and gives the picture a deep sense of irony — a quality enhanced by Irons's superb performance as the haughty, European aristocrat defended by a Jewish lawyer. This real-life tale marked the start of TV trials as soap opera: von Bulow's case obsessed America for months and made a star of his attorney, Alan Dershowitz, who's played in the film with scene-stealing bravura by Ron Silver.

Rolling Stone

"...Alternately sincere and sinister, droll and decadent, Irons makes an ambiguous figure vividly real and disturbing. It's a tricky, triumphant portrayal..."

Rating of 2 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

Based on a true story, it combines the appeal of court-room drama with a prurient curiosity about the lives of the very rich.

See all 6 Critics Reviews »

Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 3 starsThe law is not a moral judge

A customer from Aberdeen, Scotland , 08/07/2004

Less a film with character development, and drama more a staged discussion of American law. Here Claus von Bulow's innocence, morality etc are irrelevant; being not the function of defence law which is merely to question the accuracy of the prosecutions case. If there's holes or doubts in the prosecicutions case, questionable evidence, then the case gets binned - bad prosecution, which frequently has to wind up the case quickly due to political demands; 'the D.A's office blah blah' So we get O.J Simpson holding the murder weapon, blood and all, and a victim at his feet. Hurrah!

At least in Cluedo if you get two out of three the next player can have a go and nail Colonel Mustard, here you can't.

In as much as the film is a visual essay it's good, just don't expect much flesh on the characters, Irons does a creepy drawl for a few hours, we don?t know what makes him tick, what his past is and nothing but the legal argument is resolved. The professor in charge of the defence, played by Ron Silver, does a smug and smarmy derivation of the lawyer played by Al Pacino in 'And Justice for All? and left me thinking bravo smarty now how do you sleep tonight?

  1 out of 4 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 3 starsThe law is not a moral judge

A customer from Aberdeen, Scotland , 08/07/2004

Less a film with character development, and drama more a staged discussion of American law. Here Claus von Bulow's innocence, morality etc are irrelevant; being not the function of defence law which is merely to question the accuracy of the prosecutions case. If there's holes or doubts in the prosecicutions case, questionable evidence, then the case gets binned - bad prosecution, which frequently has to wind up the case quickly due to political demands; 'the D.A's office blah blah' So we get O.J Simpson holding the murder weapon, blood and all, and a victim at his feet. Hurrah!

At least in Cluedo if you get two out of three the next player can have a go and nail Colonel Mustard, here you can't.

In as much as the film is a visual essay it's good, just don't expect much flesh on the characters, Irons does a creepy drawl for a few hours, we don?t know what makes him tick, what his past is and nothing but the legal argument is resolved. The professor in charge of the defence, played by Ron Silver, does a smug and smarmy derivation of the lawyer played by Al Pacino in 'And Justice for All? and left me thinking bravo smarty now how do you sleep tonight?

  1 out of 4 people found this review helpful
Report offending content.

Read all highest rated reviews