Customer Reviews

Reversal of Fortune

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This film is far more than just the salacious filmed version of the tabloid scandal documenting Claus von Bulow's conviction and appeal on charges of twice attempting to murder his fabulously wealthy wife Sunny by injecting her with insulin.

Von Bulow was wholly unsympathetic character, idle so-called `Eurotrash,' widely assumed to be slam-dunk guilty, even by the legal team representing him on appeal. The team's audacious strategy to directly attack the public presumption of guilt-to actually convince the appellate court that this evil man was innocent all along-bears a captivating symmetry to the way Jeremy Irons (playing von Bulow) takes the completely unlikable character and endows him with an almost charming ambiguity. He makes the same transformation take place within the viewer that took place among his attorneys. You begin the filming completely convinced von Bulow is evil incarnate, yet Irons somehow gets under your skin and makes you wonder....just maybe....could he be innocent....no, certainly not.....but maybe?

This transformation can be credited not only to Iron's Oscar-winning performance, but to Barbet Schroeder's magnificent and sensitive direction and the many other outstanding performances in the film. I loved the way the Schroeder visually contrasted the shadowy, languid, dark settings in the von Bulows' Newport mansion to the aggressive, skittish, vigorous young lawyers finding legal inspiration over games of pickup basketball played with cutthroat intensity.

Glenn Close, playing Sunny von Bulow, manages not to be overshadowed by Iron's performance even though her character spends most of the film in a coma. (Imagine, stunning acting without even moving your pinkie!)

In sum, even though we know the outcome from the start, the movie is a top-flight suspense movie, the best made in years. Somehow I imagine that Alfred Hitchcock himself would have been proud to call it his.

I do not remember the Von Buelow case as I hadn't been born yet. However, the psychologist who worked with the Dershowitz team (T.S.) is a family friend and I have heard him talk about the case several times. Many people close to the investigation believe Von Buelow was framed for a crime a he probaly did commit. Thus, because of the tampering with evidence by a special prosecuter hired by the state, Von Buelow was likely over-charged, or undercharged, and was found not guilty because of the tampering. For example; if two guys get into a fight in a bar, and one gets hurt a little more than the other, should the lucky one be charged with Battery, Assault, or Attempted Murder? In this state, Battery is 0 - 1 year, Assault is 2-10 years, and Attempted Murder is 20-life. Quite a difference. From that perspective, who could not receive a fair trial no matter what. When the defense learned that the needle apparently used to deliver the insulin was encrusted with evaporated water this was seen as a huge flaw in the governments case as the victims skin would have removed the water when the needle was withdrawn. That is, the skin would tighten around the needle, and wipe the needle point clean. As portrayed by Jeremy Irons (Best Actor) in his role as Von Buelow, the most striking evidence against Von Buelow, was Von Buelow himself. Many of Dershowitz's students expressed personal outrage Dershowitz would even consider championing the appeal. Von Buelow made up funny jokes about his wife's condition making it harder and harder to represent him. But this film sure does have class. Jeremy Irons, as Von Buelow, delivers a performance so good, that it's worth the price of admission just to see the master actor at work. Ron Silver fills the role of the complicated Dershowitz with equal care. Best Picture of'89 (?), Reversal of Fortune keeps viewers even unfamiliar with the case glued to the story until it's inlikely end. Direction is also outstanding. A true classic.

This is one of my favorite films of all time! I first saw it on television when I was twelve and was immediately captivated by Irons. The way he acted was so unusual, but delightful. Now eighteen, the film is even better than I remember. The film is quite artless. The only thing that could key one in that you're watching a movie was the scene where the door opens as the camera comes into Sunny's hospital room. Otherwise, the film never calls attention to itself. Irons is superb. Equal kudos go to the acting of Ron Silver (of whom I've only seen in the Kathryn Bigelow film 'Blue Steel') who isn't as peculiar as Irons, but Silver delivers an edge that never comes across as sanctimonious. This movie has a lot of details that I could mention, but I digress. The director of this film is Barbet Schroeder. Yeah, I was surprised that the guy who did "Single White Female" did this film, too. But he delivers the goods. This film is a docudrama, but it could exist as a film on its own without the real events. In any case, this film has a perfect balance of everything and I strongly recommend it to anyone who loves the director or Irons or docudramas or smart films or legal films. Put down whatever book you're reading and treat yourself to "Reversal of Fortune".

Did Claus Von Bulow (Jeremy Irons) really try to kill his wife, Sunny (Glenn Close)twice? To this day, the heiress to a small fortune remains a prisoner of her own body, suspended in a coma that some say, Claus had his hand in. Perhaps we will never know the truth. The film plays no favorites, allowing for both Claus's innocence and guilt to come forward and be judged. Jeremy Iron's won his Best Actor Oscar, and rightly so, for his absolutely chilling performance. To be sure the Von Bulow's marriage was far from ideal but perhaps it wasn't as diabolically doomed as some would like to believe.
Warner Home Video has given us the film in a rather worn out looking print. Chips, scratches and dirt inherent in the original camera negative are present throughout and colors are somewhat dated. Though the picture is at times quite sharp, there is quite a bit of edge enhancement and shimmering of fine details that make for a rather mediocre viewing experience. The audio has been nicely restored and mixed to 5.1. There's also an informative commentary track to help you along with the details pertaining to Claus's case. All in all, this is a film screaming for one of Warner's fabulous 2-disc special editions and, in light of Warner's recent committment to its catalogue library of films, the prospects that this film will eventually be given its due are, I would say, quite good. Bottom line: Get it for the film, not the transfer.

This might have been a very run-of-the-mill movie-of-the-week about drugs and attempted murder among the very wealthy, but Barbet Schroeder and Nicholas Kazan made this story of the circumstances surrounding the mysterious coma of cereal heiress Sunny von Bulow in 1979 almost a masterpiece. With its astonishingly complex narrative structure, its pitch-black humor, its superb performances and its detailings of utter misery and despair among the lives of America's wealthiest people, the film is reminiscent in some ways of CITIZEN KANE, and when the film is at its very best (particularly when Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons are onscreen as Sunny and Claus von Bulow), the comparisons to the latter sequences in the Welles film when Charlie Kane and Susan Alexander square off in misery in Kane's Florida mansion seem most apt. Irons won an Oscar for his exceptionally funny performance as the perverse Claus, but Close may deserve the true acting honors for making Sunny's gilded hell seem so real. There are also superb supporting performances, particularly from Uta Hagen as Sunny's devoted maid and Christine Baranski as Claus's sinister girlfriend. Only the frame plot involving Ron Silver as Claus's appeals attorney Alan Dershowitz seems weak--in part because since Dershowitz's own son was a producer, and Dershowitz himself had input into the script, his character seems unrealistically sanctified. (His character is treated basically as a paragon of both humanitarianism and liberalism.) But the weak stuff with Dershowtiz and his legal hotshots is easily put aside when you get to such moments of camp genius as Close's Sunny (in a cashmere twinset and sunglasses, while holding a cigarette) eating an enormous hot fudge sundae at the dinner table while her children look on in mute horror.

There is a scene in Reversal Of Fortune where Claus von Bulow, surrounded by a gaggle of well-scrubbed Harvard law students assisting with the case, starts reciting a few of the Claus von Bulow jokes that have cropped up during the trial. "What do you call the fear of dying from an overdose of insulin --- claus - trophobia." His delivery is refined, slow, and absolutely flat, no affect. The look of bemused horror on the faces of the students summarizes all the contradictions of this movie - they simply do not understand the man they're defending.

Jeremy Irons won an Oscar for this role - he deserved two. His narration and acting in Brideshead Revisited almost made casting him as Claus von Bulow an inevitability, he seems born to this role. That he appears so natural on screen is extraordinary because von Bulow is such an odd, complex, and thoroughly detached man. His veneer is like a lobster's shell, an exoskeleton; he smokes a cigarette with the same precision and care a surgeon would reserve for slicing brain tissue. It's clear that even a trial will not reveal what makes this man tick, and in the end it doesn't matter, he's just so much fun to watch.

Having the film narrated by Sunny was genius, and Glen Close too seems to have inherited this part rather than auditioned for it. Her looks and delivery are right on point; one wonders how different life in a coma is from life inside a depression fueled by booze and pills. Alan Dershowitz, played admirably by Ron Silver, provides the junkyard dog energy that fuels the picture - everything about him is in stark contrast to the refined mansions of Rhode Island where even attempted murder must be civilized, polite, and done according to form.

Flawless production values put viewers inside the rarified atmosphere, not just wealth, but wealth that has had time to age and grow soft with decadence. Few things please us more than when things go horribly wrong for the super-rich. This film satisfies on so many levels.

Did Klaus von Bulow (played by Jeremy Irons) inject his wife Sunny (Glenn Close) with insulin to cause her to fall into a coma or not? Originally convicted, this is about the appeal case that reversed that decision. Close narrates the film from her coma state, and Ron Silver plays the hot-shot lawyer Alan Dershowitz with non-stop energy. The movie is very spirited and captivating and although it revolves around a legal case, it's not really a courtroom drama since very little of it accurs in court; instead we see Silver's aides scurrying around like chipmunks gathering their appeal case data. Of course, the weight of the movie lies on Irons, a rather cold, mysterious man who may or may not be telling the truth. Legally he gets off, but we're left with the impression that morally he may be guilty. The movie is compelling as we're watching, but, strangely, I found the images and scenes from the movie quickly evaporating after it was over: it had no lasting power. Irons won an Oscar for his role.

OH, just a delicious little bon-bon of a dark, glossy comedy about the Rich and Famous - East Coast style! Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close are picture-perfect as our somnambulistic lovers doomed to be driven apart by mischevous offspring - or is it?

We're never quite sure ....... Glenn Close as Sunny VonB. comatose long bofore that fateful overdose [?] OR was it sheer boredom? Oh, there are plenty of nighmareish scenes - especially the large double bed - With the Mrs. on one sunny side - stupored, And poor old nightcapped hubby on the South side cowering ...... now, there were those whispers about necrophelia ..... and stuff.

Great defense too - once the case hits the tabloids, and the dirty laundry! My! My! Just what did happen between Mr. Von B. and his late mama??? One shudders delightfully.

No, seriously, the performances are quite superior - especially the minor roles - Uta Hagen - great Uta as the faithfuly maid, Christine Baranski as the replacement 'wife', etc. etc.

Director Barbet Schroeder never fails to deliver.

Creepiness at it's best - and naturally it is based on fact!

{Footnote :- Sunny's still with us [69 I believe] - so's the gentleman - 75ish ..... the tapestry of terror continues, it's all very 'Notorious'...with just a whiff or two of "Suspicion"}

Brilliant; Irons was excellent, as was Close. Irons definitely deserved his Oscar. And Ron Silver! I'm surprised he wasn't nominated (of course, I suppose there are only so many spaces to fill in that regard). I did find Closes's narration mildly irritating, but opinion aside, the film wouldn't be what it is without it, and that is an original means of storytelling.

This account of the appeal and eventual retrial of Claus von Bulow for the attempted murder of his heiress wife Sunny is a very enjoyable way to spend an evening.

It's all as a result of Jeremy Iron's marvellous portrayal of the enigmatic von Bulow, although all the cast, namely Glenn Close as Sunny von Bulow and Ron Silver as the iconoclastic lawyer Alan Dershowitz, are excellent. Apparently Woody Allen was slated to play Dershowitz, but was unavailable.

Irons is witty, conservative, and flamboyant. Apparently he wore the same cut of shirt as von Bulow, whose tails met and were attached together between his legs, to smooth out the shirt near the waistline. He said this gave him the upright stance and demeanour and helped him enter into von Bulow's character.

The DVD has few extras but boasts an excellent transfer of the film itself: vivid and very natural looking.

Some reviews have claimed that the soundtrack is too low, but this was not a problem at all when I watched the film, although my system is 2-speaker only not surround sound. The sound is very slightly lower in volume than normal but I would not have noticed this if I had not read earlier reviews of the disc. Certainly do not let this put you off owning this fine DVD.