did claus von bulow try to kill his wife sunny in their newport mansion ?
that is the question reversal of fortune asks you to consider as it opens in a hospital ward , with a comatose sunny von bulow .
she is the main narrator of the film , in a narrative trick that was extraordinarily risky for schroeder .
the dramatic trick works , as sunny von bulow narrates a compelling story of murder , sex , unhappiness , and a lawyer 's moral dilemma
as he takes a case he thinks he can not win .
jeremy irons is claus von bulow , in what is his finest role , and one of the most devastingly evil performances in history .
he is as hated as any man alive , as cold as a cucumber .
his remorse for his wife 's comatose condition is nonexistant , and it is no wonder that even his children have difficulty accepting his version of what happened during christmas , 1980 .
the background to the case is such .
during christmas of 1979 , sunny von bulow fell into a deep coma from which she recovered and awoke .
the same situation occured in 1980 , only sunny never woke , and probably never will .
when examined , it was found that she had 14 times the normal amount of insulin within her blood .
claus von bulow is then accused of attempted murder by his stepson , convicted , and freed on bail .
he immediately hires alan dershowitz , the renowed harvard law professor , to acquit him .
ron silver is magnificent as a moral lawyer who can not stand what has happened to him .
we follow him through two very different cases ; the case of the johnson case , where two innocent kids are standing on death row for a crime they did n't commit , and von bulow , who he still has n't figured out .
dershowitz does n't know what happened to sunny , and he is extremely hesitant to take the case .
nevertheless , he does , based on certain things which happen during the investigative process that deeply upset him .
together with a group of law students , dershowitz concocts a defense and ultimately get the verdict reversed .
silver 's performance is one of a handful of solid roles in this deep film .
schroeder directs on many different levels , with multiple plot lines which blend in wonderfully in the mind of alan dershowitz .
there are flaws ; at times , the film gets overly theatrical .
yet , due to glenn close 's troubled and brutally honest performance as sunny von bulow , the use of her comatose body as a narrator works here fairly well .
the flashbacks are good , but at times schroeder does n't fill in the blanks .
the movie could have benefited with the increased attention of certain developments during the film , and it could have used a better ending .
the film progressed wonderfully before ending suddenly , without any intelligent conclusion .
the supporting characters are often neglected , and dershowitz 's team should have been allowed to grow character wise , but schroeder over - simplifies the story and the characters .
yet , for all these flaws , the film is deeply engrossing because of irons .
as von bulow , he is brutally evil .
anti - semitic , prejudiced , arrogant , protective , he is a rotten , lying monster , whose conviction may have been wrong legally , but morally he was to blame .
irons plays him to a cold perfection , with pathetic attempts to gain moral support for his claims to innocence .
he is an adulterous liar and a cheat who in all likelihood committed the murder .
however , the genius of reversal of fortune comes in its distinction between moral culpability and legal responsibility .
there is no doubt von bulow is responsible for his wife 's death by years of neglect and coldness .
however , legally , did he do the murder ?
schroeder dares the viewer to make up his own mind .
with all the character flaws , reversal of fortune is an engrossing puzzle because it is intelligent ; he wants the viewer to make up his own mind .
schroeder taunts the viewer with contradictory revelations , and then mentions that the answer to this compelling puzzle shall be revealed when we join sunny von bulow , in death .
for all the failed dramatic theatrics , this is one that works beautifully .
we do n't know what happened .
that sense of legal ambiguousness , along with von bulow 's obvious moral guilt , is why reversalf fortune works .
in the end , von bulow is as sadistic as ever .
irons is haunting , and that is why reversal of fortune is so good .
Output: P