Reversal of Fortune (A- or 3.5/4 stars)
The set-up for 'Reversal of Fortune' (directed by Barbet Schroeder, & based on a memoir by lawyer, Alan Dershowitz) is simple. On 12/27/1979, millionaire socialite Sunny von Bulow (Glenn Close) was found in a coma in her bathroom with an apparent overdose of insulin. Her Danish aristocrat husband, Claus von Bulow (Jeremy Irons) was convicted of attempted murder of Sunny, but sought exoneration from Harvard Prof. Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) to revert his sentence. Dershowitz teams up with his law students to collect evidence to disprove the accusation & prove Claus' innocence in one of the most scandalous attempted murder sagas of recent times. But the plot isn't all that simple. Let me backtrack & explain in detail the wonders of this labyrinthine mystery.
The film opens by showing us a glorious mansion; occupied by Claus, Sunny, 2 of their children. You look at their home & lifestyle & think, 'whoever lives there must be SO happy' ... but you'd be dead wrong. Sunny appears normal enough; traipsing through her home with beautiful clothes & jewelry; hosting parties, et al. But she chain smokes, drinks heavily, eats too many sweets, pops pills like candy, hides in her boudoir/private bathroom, & does anything & everything to escape her 'life'. In fact, rarely does she seem lucid. One day, she nearly dies, falls into a coma (most likely from an overdose), but is saved. A year later, she falls into another coma(!), but is not lucky enough to come out of that one. What the hell happened this time!? Her housemaid blamed Claus for not doing anything when it appeared that she wouldn't wake up; he believed her to be sleeping, & that she was cold because she liked sleeping with the windows open - even in winter.
BUT, how did she then end up on the bathroom floor with her night dress hiked-up over her torso? And what about some insulin found by said housemaid? Was it even Sunny's? And who administered it to her? The question of the insulin is what drew Alan Dershowitz into the appeal (from which Claus was initially convicted of attempted murder, but the conviction was overturned after Dershowtiz & Co. got him off). What happened to Sunny von Bulow on that cold winter day back in 1979? No one seems to know for sure. 11 yrs. after the mysterious incident which put her in a coma ... Sunny still lingered in this coma (this film came out in 1990). And this film, which chronicles all the events, is a truly fascinating watch. The movie does not solve the case; it can't. The ingenious part of 'Reversal of Fortune' is that the story is narrated by none other than Sunny von Bulow (through Glenn Close's voice) from her deathbed.
She tells us about how she met Claus, how she felt about him, & confesses how out of sorts she'd been for the last few yrs. of her dark life. We hear her, we wonder - along with her - about the chain of events, & what happened to her. She even guides us through the details of the case. And the script is incredible because there's no way for her or us to know the truth; it skirts the definite, but suggests the possible. She even poses, "You tell me what happened". Loved that! The tone that the director & writer(s) strike for this film is great, as well. It's sometimes funny, often wicked, witty, devious, & haunting. Haunting; because we see dramatizations of the Claus/Sunny relationship that lead to her eventual coma. Jeremy Irons gives a tour-de-force, Oscar caliber performance as the statuesque, genteel, yet snobbish Claus von Bulow. He plays Claus as intelligent, bizarre, methodical, & sarcastic. And yet, behind his facade of confidence, you can always tell that he's nervous, as well. His smooth baritone, tailored suits, cigarette-in-hand ... it's all a front.
Claus doesn't know if he'll be exonerated or sent to jail for life; depending solely on the only man who can save him, Dershowitz. Ron Silver is stellar; playing this dry-witted man who surrounds himself with fellow law students, fights with tenacity for justice, but has contempt for, and doesn't think Claus is innocent. Glenn Close is magnificent, as well. She appears in flashbacks, giving us all the ammunition we need to judge her character & decide if she put herself in her own coma; was aided by someone else; or was intentionally quieted. I felt like I knew her Sunny: beautiful, self-contained, weak. The lighting of a cigarette after putting out the previous; the staggering to bed after a day of sadness, depression, hazy confusion & booze. She just looked lost. And Close nailed the portrayal.
'Reversal of Fortune' shows us a few things. 1) It examines the idle rich; showing us that all isn't rosy for the upper-class. 2) If Sunny didn't put herself into a coma, you wonder how this perfect crime could have been committed. 3) We get some interesting peripheral insight into the legal process. 4) The film makes you wonder why would this man be tempted to let his wife slip into an interminable coma. She sure seemed to want out of her life. But who knows? And 5) how in the world did she get in the coma in the 1st place? Insulin? Something else? Ugh. Such a mystery. Such a well-executed film about this mystery; blending fact & conjecture into the already harrowing narrative. I was tantalized, mesmerized, chilled, & intrigued. Bravo.
The film opens by showing us a glorious mansion; occupied by Claus, Sunny, 2 of their children. You look at their home & lifestyle & think, 'whoever lives there must be SO happy' ... but you'd be dead wrong. Sunny appears normal enough; traipsing through her home with beautiful clothes & jewelry; hosting parties, et al. But she chain smokes, drinks heavily, eats too many sweets, pops pills like candy, hides in her boudoir/private bathroom, & does anything & everything to escape her 'life'. In fact, rarely does she seem lucid. One day, she nearly dies, falls into a coma (most likely from an overdose), but is saved. A year later, she falls into another coma(!), but is not lucky enough to come out of that one. What the hell happened this time!? Her housemaid blamed Claus for not doing anything when it appeared that she wouldn't wake up; he believed her to be sleeping, & that she was cold because she liked sleeping with the windows open - even in winter.
BUT, how did she then end up on the bathroom floor with her night dress hiked-up over her torso? And what about some insulin found by said housemaid? Was it even Sunny's? And who administered it to her? The question of the insulin is what drew Alan Dershowitz into the appeal (from which Claus was initially convicted of attempted murder, but the conviction was overturned after Dershowtiz & Co. got him off). What happened to Sunny von Bulow on that cold winter day back in 1979? No one seems to know for sure. 11 yrs. after the mysterious incident which put her in a coma ... Sunny still lingered in this coma (this film came out in 1990). And this film, which chronicles all the events, is a truly fascinating watch. The movie does not solve the case; it can't. The ingenious part of 'Reversal of Fortune' is that the story is narrated by none other than Sunny von Bulow (through Glenn Close's voice) from her deathbed.
She tells us about how she met Claus, how she felt about him, & confesses how out of sorts she'd been for the last few yrs. of her dark life. We hear her, we wonder - along with her - about the chain of events, & what happened to her. She even guides us through the details of the case. And the script is incredible because there's no way for her or us to know the truth; it skirts the definite, but suggests the possible. She even poses, "You tell me what happened". Loved that! The tone that the director & writer(s) strike for this film is great, as well. It's sometimes funny, often wicked, witty, devious, & haunting. Haunting; because we see dramatizations of the Claus/Sunny relationship that lead to her eventual coma. Jeremy Irons gives a tour-de-force, Oscar caliber performance as the statuesque, genteel, yet snobbish Claus von Bulow. He plays Claus as intelligent, bizarre, methodical, & sarcastic. And yet, behind his facade of confidence, you can always tell that he's nervous, as well. His smooth baritone, tailored suits, cigarette-in-hand ... it's all a front.
Claus doesn't know if he'll be exonerated or sent to jail for life; depending solely on the only man who can save him, Dershowitz. Ron Silver is stellar; playing this dry-witted man who surrounds himself with fellow law students, fights with tenacity for justice, but has contempt for, and doesn't think Claus is innocent. Glenn Close is magnificent, as well. She appears in flashbacks, giving us all the ammunition we need to judge her character & decide if she put herself in her own coma; was aided by someone else; or was intentionally quieted. I felt like I knew her Sunny: beautiful, self-contained, weak. The lighting of a cigarette after putting out the previous; the staggering to bed after a day of sadness, depression, hazy confusion & booze. She just looked lost. And Close nailed the portrayal.
'Reversal of Fortune' shows us a few things. 1) It examines the idle rich; showing us that all isn't rosy for the upper-class. 2) If Sunny didn't put herself into a coma, you wonder how this perfect crime could have been committed. 3) We get some interesting peripheral insight into the legal process. 4) The film makes you wonder why would this man be tempted to let his wife slip into an interminable coma. She sure seemed to want out of her life. But who knows? And 5) how in the world did she get in the coma in the 1st place? Insulin? Something else? Ugh. Such a mystery. Such a well-executed film about this mystery; blending fact & conjecture into the already harrowing narrative. I was tantalized, mesmerized, chilled, & intrigued. Bravo.