Reversal of Fortune
Composite Score: 86.1
Starring: Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Ron Silver, Annabella Sciorra, Uta Hagen, Fisher Stevens, Jack Gilpin, Christine Baranski, Stephen Mailer, and Julie Hagerty
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Writer: Nicholas Kazan
Genres: Biography, Drama, Mystery, Crime, Legal
MPAA Rating: R
Box Office: $15.45 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Reversal of Fortune is the film adaptation of Alan Dershowitz’s book of the same name about the appeals trial of Claus von Bülow, for whom Dershowitz served as defense attorney after he was initially convicted of two counts of the attempted murder of his wife Sunny in 1982. The film stars Jeremy Irons as Claus, Glenn Close as Sunny, who also narrates much of the film, and Ron Silver as Dershowitz. It received Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Lead Actor for Jeremy Irons, who won the award, beating out Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, and Richard Harris in the process. The film has been celebrated for its strong performances and for its tactful presentation of events as the public knows them, leaving the actual verdict up to the audience.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
The biggest misstep made in Reversal of Fortune ends up being the result of hindsight. It tries to paint Dershowitz as some upstanding lawyer who only takes cases where real miscarriages of justice have been carried out and who defends the less fortunate for free. While this may have been something close to the truth in 1984 and even when the film released in 1990, modern perceptions of Dershowitz recognize him as a defender of high-profile offenders whose guilt is never in question but who he can get off on minor technicalities, further inflaming their supporters – defending the likes of O.J. Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and Donald Trump in the 34 years since the film came out. It makes the question of Claus’s innocence seem less ambiguous and also makes the “moral” center of the film feel much less upstanding, seeing as that is couched in the person of Dershowitz. To top all of that off, it doesn’t help that the case and all those involved are so opulently richer than even the average upper-middle-class audience member that any relatability the story manages to build up is lost when prices, places, and people get mentioned again.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Separating ourselves from the reality of the case and people behind the film, Reversal of Fortune is in fact a great example of how to make a compelling legal drama – cast people who can act circles around the average citizen and let them go to work. For Silver, his portrayal of Dershowitz feels fairly true to life, if a bit hammed-up at times to keep the audience rooting for someone, but he holds his own with Irons and really embodies the persona of a conflicted defense lawyer working for that paycheck. Close, though limited to flashbacks in her active screentime, portrays Sunny as the film needs her to be perceived – part victim, part perpetrator in the dissolution of her family and her own life. Her portrayal of Sunny’s substance abuse, manic episodes, and desire for control gives the audience a compelling if not fully sympathetic victim, which perfectly sets up the moral and legal ambiguities that the film wants to elicit. Obviously, though, it is Irons who runs the show from beginning to end as the most loathsome villain who just might not have done what they say he did (though, again, he probably did, given Dershowitz’s track record). He delivers a chilling performance that unnerves both his on-screen and off-screen audience, leaving us with little choice but to assume that he’s guilty just off vibes alone. He plays at knowing more than he ever lets on so well for someone who is simply working with the script that he’d been given and whatever he happened to have read in the news, and it makes for one of the more compelling legal anti-heroes in cinema. His willingness to joke about the case while sharing partial truths and obfuscating from any straight answer speaks to the great writing of the film, but Irons’s delivery elevates every scene to a new level that just leaves you feeling dirty by the time the credits have rolled.
The leading performances of Reversal of Fortune are what have earned it a place among the all-time greats, but none stand taller than Jeremy Irons’s Oscar-winning portrayal of Claus von Bülow, which keeps the audience guessing and almost rooting against the narrative at every turn while staying fully hooked into how it’ll all play out. The positive portrayal of Dershowitz hasn’t aged super well, and the focus on America’s uber-rich can be alienating for viewers, but the dramatic portrayal of events still makes for a compelling legal drama at the end of the day. You can currently rent this film on most streaming platforms if you’d like to check it out.
