Reversal of Fortune **** (1990, Jeremy Irons, Ron Silver, Glenn Close, Annabella Sciorra, Uta Hagen, Fisher Stevens, Christine Baranski) – Classic Movie Review 7232

Director Barbet Schroeder’s 1990 biographical mystery docudrama thriller Reversal of Fortune, based on actual events, stars Jeremy Irons, who grabbed a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar and a Golden Globe for one of his most authoritative performances as haughty, dissolute European aristocrat Claus von Bülow, who is accused of attempting to murder his hypoglycemic wealthy socialite wife Sunny von Bülow (Glenn Close), who lies in an unexplained brain-dead coma on falling into diabetic shock after a Christmas party. Claus is charged with attempting to murder his wife by giving her an overdose of insulin, but he claims that he is innocent and is defended by an eccentric Jewish lawyer, Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver).

There were two other Oscar nominations – for Best Director (Barbet Schroeder) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Nicholas Kazan).

There is commanding acting all round propels this suspenseful real-life mystery, with tense, polished direction by Schroeder who handles the complex, intelligent thriller with the utmost skill and style.

Nicholas Kazan’s expertly smooth screenplay is based on the 1985 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case by Alan M Dershowitz, the brilliant Harvard law professor played so impressively by Silver. The story is narrated by Sunny von Bülow, who, as we said, is in a coma.

‘Well, that’s a start,’ says Claus von Bülow (Jeremy Irons).

Reversal of Fortune also features in the cast Annabella Sciorra, Uta Hagen, Fisher Stevens, Christine Baranski, Stephen Mailer, Jack Gilpin, Julie Hagerty, Felicity Huffman, Christine Dunford, Johann Carlo and Alan Pottinger.

Reversal of Fortune is directed by Barbet Schroeder, runs 111 minutes, is made by Shochiku Fuji, Reversal Films and Sovereign Pictures, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Nicholas Kazan, based on the book by Alan Dershowitz, is shot in Technicolor by Luciano Tovoli, is produced by Edward R Pressman and Oliver Stone, is scored by Mark Isham and designed by Mel Bourne.

Kazan said he foresaw Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer as Claus von Bülow but was eventually thrilled with Irons’s performance.

It was shot in Rhode Island and New Jersey, and the Knole house in Old Westbury.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7232

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