Review of Reversal of Fortune (1990) by Harry W — 24 Apr 2014

Jeremy Irons is what makes Reversal of Fortune the memorable feature that it is. His final line in the film instantly changed my perception of his entire performance. For the majority of Reversal of Fortune, I found that Jeremy Irons' performance was in a role too small to be deemed a leading role and that his performance was somewhat emotionless. Within the final line of the film, I fully embraced what he had done the entire time. Jeremy Irons refused to show emotions in his portrayal of Claus Von Bulow because then the viewer may determine whether he was guilty or innocent, and in his final line viewers become mesmerised at how he handles the one moment. Although his performance feels more like a supporting role, he is good. I didn't think it was anything Academy Award worthy though.

I thought that although her screen time was hugely inconsistent, I found Glenn Close to be a pleasingly good presence in Reversal of Fortune as Sunny von Bulow who acted her character's disabilities well.

And Ron Silver kept his portion of the story interesting with his portrayal of Alan Dershowitz being intelligent and insightful, keeping things interesting when he was on screen.

Also, the script in Reversal of Fortune is clever as it is strongly insightful into conveying an understanding of the functioning legal system to its viewers, even to the simple minded and those interested in law.

But Reversal of Fortune ultimately failed to entertain me.

For one thing, Reversal of Fortune does not feature a sufficiently entertaining plot or characters that I really found myself caring about. I only found myself interested in the story of Alan Dershowitz as he was the most determined and interesting character of the story, which is strange considering the fact that the story is about a supposed attempted murderer.

Also, a problem is that the structure in Reversal of Fortune delves back and fourth between flashbacks, direct events involving Claus von Bulow and the efforts by Alan Dershowitz to overturn the case. The constant change in storyline makes the direction of the story ambiguous and its intentions unclear, and in the end I had walked away from it it confused and lacking in entertainment.

Reversal of Fortune is a dated film. The day we live in harbours different standards which it fails to live up to, but its well acted.