Reversal of Fortune
1990
***½
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Cast: Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Ron Silver, Annabella Sciorra, Uta Hagen, Fisher Stevens, Christine Baranski, Felicity Huffman, Jack Gilpin, Stephen Mailer, Julie Hagerty
In 1982, Claus von Bülow is found guilty of attempting to murder her wealthy wife by injecting insuline. For his appeal, he hires Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. This entertaining, fact-based legal drama spends only a few minutes in the courtroom. Most of the runtime is dedicated to a team of lawyers working to clear the name of a cold, arrogant, and unsympathetic defendant, whom everyone assumes is guilty. The victim, Sunny von Bülow, who remains in a coma, narrates the story. Jeremy Irons won an Academy Award for his witty and sharp lead performance. Nicholas Kazan's script is based on Dershowitz's 1985 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case. The film portrays Dershowitz as a champion of justice, which hasn't aged particularly well, considering that in recent years, he has defended O.J. Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and Donald Trump.
