Reversal of Fortune

1990 Drama

This film is a darkly humorous, determinedly ambiguous adaptation of Alan Dershowitz's book about his successful legal appeal of Claus von Bulow's conviction for the attempted murder of his wife, Martha "Sunny" von Bulow. Sunny (Glenn Close) -- who remains in a "persistent vegetative state" resulting from a suspicious injection of insulin -- narrates the film, summarizing the first murder trial, which ended with Claus (Jeremy Irons) convicted and released on bail pending appeal. Claus approaches Harvard Law professor Dershowitz (Ron Silver) to handle the case. Working with a small group of law students recruited from his classes, Dershowitz presents sufficient new evidence to cast doubt as to Claus' guilt and the veracity of the star witness, her maid. Jeremy Irons' extraordinary, Oscar-winning performance dominates the film. He plays the role of Claus with a alternatively pompous, aloof snobbishness and an engagingly enigmatic, kinky, sly humor. Barbet Schroeder was also nominated for an Academy Award for his extraordinary, off-beat, direction of this sophisticated, exceptionally intelligent legal drama. Reversal of Fortune with its sharp, witty, Oscar-nominated screenplay by Nicholas Kazan is unusual in its understanding that legal guilt and moral culpability are not the same thing -- making for an unusually provocative tragicomedy of bad manners and bad behavior among the rich. more..

Director: Barbet Schroeder

Starring: Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Ron Silver, Annabella Sciorra, Uta Hagen

Reviews

  • It is a surprisingly entertaining film - funny, wicked, sharp-tongued and devious. It does not solve the case, nor intend to. I am afraid it only intends to entertain.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    27 April 2013

  • Funny and scary, Reversal is a tour de force for Schroeder, who examines the idle rich, the intricacies of the legal system, and the imperatives of morality concisely but with unmatched brio.

    - Entertainment Weekly

    27 April 2013

  • What makes it such a mesmerizing, wickedly witty entertainment is the revealing portrait it paints of an era in which everyone is presumed guilty where greed is concerned... It's an often chilly movie, but the chill cuts to the bone.

    Peter Travers - Rolling Stone

    27 April 2013

  • The comic contrast between the genteel snobbery of von Bulow, a Danish aristocrat, and Dershowitz's dry contempt for his well-tailored client is treated with understated but stinging wit in Nicholas Kazan's brilliant script.

    Bob Graham - The San Francisco Chronicle

    27 April 2013

  • Barbet Schroeder directed the ingeniously made film, which weaves fact, hypothesis, and conjecture into a harrowing yet continually gripping and often highly amusing narrative.

    David Sterritt - Christian Science Monitor

    27 April 2013

Awards

  • Best Actor in a Leading Role

    Academy Awards (1991)

  • Best Actor

    Boston Society of Film Critics Awards (1991)

  • Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama

    Casting Society of America (1991)

     
  • Best Actor

    Chicago Film Critics Association Awards (1991)

  • Best Foreign Actor (Migliore Attore Straniero)

    David di Donatello Awards (1991)