Review: Reversal of Fortune

European aristocrat Claus von Bulow (Jeremy Irons) has been charged and convicted of the attempted murder of his American socialite wife Sunny (Glenn Close), who now lies in a comatose state, apparently her second such coma in recent years. Wanting to have this conviction overturned and vehemently protesting his innocence, he seeks the counsel of law professor Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver), who is initially disinterested, thinking Claus guilty. However, he eventually agrees to take the case, and backed by his team of law students (including ex-girlfriend Annabella Sciorra), Dershowitz aims to poke holes in the original case. It won’t be easy, though, as Claus is an arrogant, cold, dismissive, and pretty much unlikeable man who really does himself no favours. Did he try to kill her with a near-fatal dosage of insulin in order to score her millions? Or was Sunny suicidally depressed and prone to over-medicating herself (and drinking way too much)? Christine Baranski plays Claus’ current lover, Julie Hagerty has a cameo as one of Claus’ earlier flings, Fisher Stevens plays a slimy witness, a young Felicity Huffman, Christine Dunford, and Tom Wright play some of Dershowitz’s law students.

 

Fascinating, rock-solid 1990 Barbet Schroeder (“Barfly”, “Single White Female”, “Murder By Numbers”) legal drama with a slight dark comedy edge, is based on a real-life case written about in Alan Dershowitz’s non-fiction book of the same name. It’s taken me 25 shameful years to get around to seeing this one, due to my negative view of the acting talents of Glenn Close, and it took me forever to find a Jeremy Irons performance I liked, too (When I finally watched “Lolita” a few years back). I didn’t regret the decision to watch this one, it wasn’t the arch, arthouse bore I was expecting at all. The opening 10 minutes alone are fascinating and contain enough material for a film of its own. It only gets better from there.

 

Scripted by an Oscar-nominated Nicholas Kazan (“Frances”, “At Close Range”, “Fallen”), it’s actually pretty irresistible stuff, and gives an Academy Award-winning Jeremy Irons a perfect, almost stereotypical role for him. Sure, he’s a bit mannered in the part, but that’s not exactly a wrong note for such a pretentious, arrogant person as Claus von Bulow. It might just be the role he was born to play, alongside Humbert Humbert in “Lolita”. Irons nails the arrogance and aristocratic aloofness. Claus simply has no idea how to endear himself to those below his social standing, nor does he seem to care. It’s as if he’s not guilty and expects everyone to simply believe it because he says it’s true. In a way Claus is a bit like Australia’s own Lindy Chamberlain, who aroused suspicion because she simply didn’t display what society tells us is the proper degree of emotion for someone who has lost a loved one (though in Claus’ case, his wife is in a permanent vegetative state, not dead). I normally find Glenn Close a cold, facially immobile actress, and this is the one time when those qualities actually work in her favour. Her frozen look is perfect for a frequently drunk, over-medicated, and (even on a good day) barely conscious woman. It’s easily her best work to date, and most of it is through voiceover (Which, by the way, eerily sounded like a precursor to TV’s “Desperate Housewives” to me).

 

The late Ron Silver I feel is a still very underrated actor, and he’s perfect as Alan Dershowitz, the man tasked with overturning the attempted murder conviction of this frankly unlikeable, aristocratic fop. There’s a particularly brilliant scene he has where a young Felicity Huffman refuses to join his legal team, and Dershowitz masterfully tells her why he must defend Claus. I also really enjoyed the work of Annabella Sciorra as a former lover of Dershowitz’s who reluctantly joins his legal team (but her reluctance has nothing to do with Claus). In smaller roles, Fisher Stevens does perhaps his finest-ever work as a sleazy witness to Sunny von Bulow’s alleged drug habit, and a well-cast Christine Baranski plays the forerunner to the haughty rich character she has played almost the entirety of her career (range isn’t her thing). Hell, it might not even be acting, maybe that’s just her. Less well-cast is Julie Hagerty as a supposed sex kitten soap opera actress. Really? The spacey chick from “Flying High”? Um…no.

 

The chilly characters of Claus and Sunny (the latter of whom died in 2008) might repel some of you, but I thought this was a pretty damn good yarn, with terrific performances from top to bottom. Teasing and tantalising, it’s also a lot funnier than you’ll probably expect reading the synopsis (very black comedy, though). This isn’t the brilliant film some claim it to be, but it’s a good one with a riveting real-life story.

 

Rating: B-