Reversal Of Fortune

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.