An anti-buddy film: Reversal of Fortune

The 1990 movie "Reversal of Fortune" makes a number of best films lists, and surprisingly I'd never seen it, despite the R.I. connection (though clearly film not shot in R.I. other than the background aerial footage during credit sequence). Movie, about the von Bulow attempted murder case appeal, feels a little dated (and not just when we see the lawyers poking away on clunky word processors or talking on wordless phones the size of boots) but to its credit the filmmakers do a great job building a narration about a complex case with a lot of subtleties and legal trivia and ephemera: it's one thing to do a book or movie about a criminal trial - there are billions of great trial films - but an appeal is another matter: they're not presenting evidence, witnesses, testimony by victims or perps - it's all about finding flaws in the original trial that will persuade the justices to reverse the verdict. The only people talking will be the lawyers, and they're not looking for new evidence, just for legal miscues. Given the difficulty, Reversal does a great job - helped a lot by Jeremy Irons's terrific performance as an insufferable Claus von Bulow (total phony - he added the von to sound more aristocratic - in fact he's just a bounder). The movie is based on defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz'z book of same title, so of course it makes Dershowitz (also insufferable) into a hero, the brilliant scholar and leader of a crack team of law-student acolytes - and the defense team is like a Cambridge fraternity, all chummy in a big rambling house where they eat communally and shoot hoops, etc - a painfully obvious contrast to VB's life in a mansion. Best scene is probably VB joining the legal eagles for a Chinese dinner. Of course Dersh figures out the big angle while playing basketball, and of course he persuades the skeptical student to stay on the team - all movie cliches - but the movie does offer some good, thoughtful dialogue (monologue really - the students are just throwing Dersh lines) about the criminal justice system and why he takes on a case of someone whom he is pretty sure is guilty, whom he knows is anti-Semitic, and whom he pretty much despises. One of the strengths of the film is the cliche it avoids: Dershowitz and von Bulow decidedly do not become movie buddies.