Review of Reversal of Fortune (1990) by Scott C — 14 Apr 2009

I'm glad I watched this shortly after Witness for the Prosecution because they make good companion pieces. There are enough differences to make this an enjoyable movie on its own, but also some themes that are similar. Witness for the Prosecution, the play, was written in the early '50s, while the movie was made in the late '50s. This movie is about a real life court case from 1980 and the movie was made in 1990. So, around thirty years passed between the culture of the two. What happened in that time? Besides the freer use of language and portrayal of drug use, I think the most important difference is the cynicism. Witness for the Prosecution does eventually reveal the truth about the mystery. It's not entirely a clean cut, black and white, easy answer, but what really happened is revealed. With this story we are given options. We are shown a couple scenarios that could have happened and either are believable. Then we are left hanging.

We get to know the victim (suicide? or murder?) much better since Close is our narrator. In a way, she is a modern reversal of the character Dietrich could have been. This movie presents us with Irons as the suspect, an upper class British character who does not show his emotions outwardly. This means he seems cold-hearted and perfectly able to murder. He is a reversal of Power's character since he has none of the charm and enjoys none of the public favor that Power's character did. Then we have Silver who plays an American Jewish lawyer who has the tough task of putting together the appeal. He has the same difficulty in getting to the truth of the matter with his client like Laughton did. Only in this movie he is a professor at Harvard, so he picks his best students to assist him in researching all the evidence that had made up the prosecution's case. This situation leads to a lot of interesting dialog about law, morality, and perception. Again the real mystery is about the questionable innocence or guilt of the suspect.