It is said that with great power comes great responsibility. Perhaps with great wealth comes great irresponsibility. Reversal of Fortune has everything that a filmgoer could want when it comes to true-life crime stories. There is sex. There is wealth. There is a sinister suspect. With excellent performances and a sly tone, Reversal of Fortune chronicles its lurid story well.
Our story is told primarily in voiceover from the victim herself. Sunny von Bulow (Glenn Close) is a persistent vegetative state. She fell into this sorry state after falling into a coma due to a diabetic shock close to Christmas, 1980. What makes this all the more curious is that this was her second coma. The first was almost a year earlier, but she had recovered. Now, however, there is no way back for our socialite.
Sunny's husband Claus von Bulow (Jeremy Irons) had been slow in getting his wife needed medical attention on both occasions. He had a mistress, soap opera actress Alexandra Isles (Julie Hagerty). He also stood to inherit a great deal of money upon Sunny's death. Could Claus have attempted to murder Sunny not once but twice? He did not get away with it as Sunny managed technically surviving both comas. However, Claus was convicted of attempted murder.
Into this comes crusading Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver). Claus contacts Dershowitz to help him with his appeal. He took the advice of his newest companion, Andrea Reynolds (Christine Baranski) to "get the Jew". Alan has no interest in the von Bulow case. He does have an interest in the $300 an hour that von Bulow can pay, which Dershowitz will use to help two black teens on death row. Dershowitz soon starts looking into what should be an open-and-shut case. However, is it as open-and-shut as it appears?
Alan and his team of students soon think that Claus von Bulow is being set up. His stepchildren Alexander (Jad Mager) and Ala (Sarah Fearon), along with Sunny's loyal maid Maria (Uta Hagen) all openly detest Claus. Their own attorney had taken copious notes from them, notes that he never shared with Claus' original defense. There is also a published interview with Truman Capote who claimed that Sunny was taking drugs. Could she have injected herself? Could it have been a botched suicide attempt?
There is also the shady David Marriot (Fisher Stevens). Marriot admits to being a drug pusher but also says that he was a drug mule for Alexander. Could he be a help or hindrance in this case? Everyone is against Claus. Only Claus and Sunny's daughter Cosima (Kristi Hundt) has stayed loyal.
Claus finally tells his side of the story to Dershowitz and his team. It is of an unhappy wife who ignored medical advice about her hypoglycemia. Could Claus actually be innocent? Alan starts believing it so. There is at least room for doubt. However, will it be enough to reverse Claus' fortune?
Director Barbet Schroeder received a Best Director nomination. It was well-earned. Reversal of Fortune has a strong pace and excellent performances. From the beginning when we hear Mark Isham's elegant and sophisticated but menacing score, we know that Reversal of Fortune is telling us a dark story beneath its elegant veneer.
Schroeder balances the past and present with subtle hints. When we are with the comatose Sunny, the film is dominated with blue cinematography. This suggests Sunny's eternal twilight, where she is aware but powerless. He also draws strong performances out of his cast. Glenn Close's performance consists almost entirely of voiceover. It is close to 45 minutes before we see Close not narrating but in the role. She made Sunny into tragic figure, brittle and lost.
A standout performance is that of Fisher Stevens as the shady David Marriott. He is appropriately sleazy and amoral. He, however, also makes him oddly compelling, like a con man who does not hide that he is a con man.
Nicholas Kazan's Oscar-nominated screenplay adaptation of Professor Alan Dershowitz's book has an interesting take in metaphorically giving the comatose Sunny a voice in her story. In a nine-minute opening narration Sunny gives us a recap of her case. Glenn Close's delivery is soft, elegant and matter of fact. Sunny's narration has a drop of arsenic, as if hiding her fury within an icy delivery.
"I never woke from this coma, and I never will" she tells us. "I am what doctors call "persistent vegetative". A vegetable. According to medical experts, I could stay that way for a very long time. Brain dead, body better than ever".
We go back to Sunny in that sorry state every so often. Of particular note is when we see her getting a massage in the hospital while she discusses her past. It is a dark commentary on how the once idle rich now are in this physically weakened condition.
"What do you give a wife who has everything?", he tells them. After a silent beat, von Bulow replies, "An injection of insulin". Claus then follows that quip with another stab at humor. "How do you define a fear of insulin?". After another silent beat, Claus von Bulow deadpans, "Claus-traphobia". The lines are groan-inducing. However, it is Irons' performance that shows this man is basically not human.
He does not speak these lines in an avuncular manner. There is not a drip of sarcasm or even a sincere effort at lightening the mood. Instead, Irons delivers all his dialogue with this curious assurance that is eerie, bizarre but endlessly fascinating. Irons never rages as Claus von Bulow. He never seems to express any true and authentic emotions. That is what makes Jeremy Irons in Reversal of Fortune so good. He makes Claus into this enigma, a figure who is unaware of how he comes across. The closest that von Bulow comes to acknowledging his eccentric manner is after another meeting with Dershowitz. "You are a strange man," the law professor tells him. "You have no idea," Irons' von Bulow icily replies.
Despite this long, strange trip, Alan Dershowitz never cracked who Claus von Bulow was. It appears that he ended up not wanting to know.
Reversal of Fortune has the aforementioned Mark Isham score, elegant but sinister. It is a perfect reflection of the story and its characters. It flows well and never has its flashbacks jar the viewer.
Reversal of Fortune is a dark and elegant story of justice delayed and perhaps denied. The film did a good thing in bringing Sunny back from time to time. So often, the victims or alleged victims are forgotten. Here, she was not. She was even allowed a chance to speak in a way, something the real Sunny would not be able to do for the last 28 years of her life.
Legally, Claus von Bulow died an innocent man. However, there is still room for doubt. The film ends with Claus at the unlikeliest place: a corner convenience store. He buys some cigarettes and observes that the cashier recognizes him from the tabloids next to him. "Anything else?", she asks, somewhat frightened. "Yes. A vial of insulin", he replies. Smiling in a curious manner, he adds, "Just kidding" and winks at her. Whether Claus von Bulow ultimately got away with his crimes we may never know. We do know that his fortunes, once apparently doomed, were reversed in his favor.
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| Claus von Bulow: 1926-2019 |
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| Martha "Sunny" von Bulow: 1931-2008 |
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