Reversal of Fortune
by Barbet Schroeder
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Annabella Sciorra, Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, Ron Silver, Uta HagenDirector: Barbet Schroeder
Brand: IRONS,JEREMY
Producer: Diane Schneier
Producer: Edward R. Pressman
Producer: Elon Dershowitz
Producer: Michael Flynn
Producer: Michael Rauch
Writer: Alan M. Dershowitz
Writer: Nicholas Kazan
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
Published: 2001-03-01
DVD Release Date: 2001-03-13
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Reversal of Fortune
Movie Review: A hidden "fortune"
Summary: 5 Stars
In murder mysteries, there's usually a Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Adrian Monk or even a Shawn Spencer standing by to solve everything.
However, real life isn't so tidy. And nothing was tidy in the widely-publicized incident where socialite Sunny von Bülow lapsed into a coma, with her husband as the only suspect. "Reversal of Fortune" quietly chronicles a real-life murder investigation and trial, while avoiding melodrama and theatrics -- or assumptions about what really happened.
On December 21 1980, Sunny von Bülow (Glenn Close) was found unconscious on her bathroom floor, and remained in a vegetative coma until her death almost exactly twenty-eight years later. Her suspicious children Alex and Ala began a private investigation, and soon Sunny's estranged husband Claus (Jeremy Irons) was accused of having tried to kill her twice. He was tried and convicted.
Meanwhile, lawyer Alan Dershowitz is struggling to help a pair of young men on death row when he's unexpectedly contacted by Claus, who wants Dershowitz to take on his case. With a small army of young law students, Alan starts investigating a murder case that may not have been a murder, with a client whom the American people have already decided is guilty. But there are clues and questions that may never be answered.
"Reversal of Fortune" is a very rare movie about murder investigations and legal cases, because it's remarkably realistic. It answers no questions about what happened to Sunny -- was it murder, suicide or a freak accident? -- and there are no big dramatic courtroom showdowns or dramatic clue-finds like there are on TV.
Instead, "Reversal of Fortune" glides through on everything that really HAPPENED, and on the genuine grueling process of puncturing a seemingly airtight case. We follow Dershowitz as he and his team sift through the evidence and testimonies, and while it lacks the thrills of the usual TV mysteries, it's all the more fascinating because there are no easy answers or innocent people.
And lest we get bored there are frequent flashbacks to Sunny and Claus's marriage. Some are told by Claus, some by court testimony, and some by Sunny herself (often seen curled and corpselike in her hospital bed, getting sponge-baths and hooked up to an IV).
Pretty much everybody in this movie does an excellent job. The real standout here is Jeremy Irons, who plays the "Eurotrash gold-digger" to charming erudite perfection -- you can never tell if Claus is a cold-blooded sociopath, or a sleek charmer with a sick sense of humor. Glenn Close also does a good job both as the neurotic, rather childish Sunny and the comatose woman looking back on her life.
"Reversal of Fortune" avoids the tropes of most movies about criminal investigations -- this is a tasteful, intricate look at a real-life court war. Watch it at least twice to absorb its quality.
Summary of Reversal of Fortune
Jeremy Irons won the Best Actor Academy Award(R) as socialite Claus von Bulow, seeking legal exoneration in the most sensational attempted murder scandal of the 1980s. Glen Close co-stars. Year: 1990One of the most intriguing criminal trials of the 1980s involved Claus von Bülow, who was accused of sending his rich wife Sunny into a permanent coma with an overdose of insulin. Director Barbet Schroeder, working from Nicholas Kazan's evocative, darkly humorous script, turns the story into both a look at the lives of rich folks with too much time on their hands and a whodunit, as lawyer Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) prepares to defend von Bülow (Jeremy Irons) in court. Irons won an Oscar for his spooky, knowing performance, which hints at depths of degeneracy without ever putting a dent in a veneer of bored elegance. The contrast between the hard-charging Dershowitz and his eager-beaver Harvard law students and the eternally languid von Bülow adds unexpected humor. --Marshall Fine
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