This was a movie, and based a true-life story, that left a lot of people puzzled. Did he - Claus von Bulow - murder his wife, or didn't he? After watching this film a decade ago, I still wasn't sure.
The story is a fascinating one and the movie is well-done, too. Was the story biased? Probably since it comes from a book written by attorney shown in the movie but, as someone who mainly knows the story only from this film, I am not qualified to say how much of this is truth, fiction and/or bias. Nonetheless, I am usually intrigued with character studies, another reason I liked this movie.
I only know the story was interesting and Jeremy Irons as "von Bulow;" and Glenn Close his wife "Sunny," and Ron Silver as attorney "Alan Dershowitz," were all fascinating to me, all turning in fine performances. It's ironic that Silver, who played mostly sleazy characters in this timer period, played a law professor. It was appropriate casting. Irons won an Oscar for his effort and is obviously the focus of the story.
The only thing I warn viewers is not to be duped by the message in there that you can't ever know the truth, everything is relative, etc. This is nonsense and the kind of psycho-babble defense lawyers love to spew. What's sad is that all the education in the world, Dershowitz proves here, means nothing if you don't realize there ARE absolutes in the world. Yes, Alan, murder is wrong: that's a black-and-white issue. I'll bet this lawyer would have loved to be on the O.J. Simpson trial, too, and would have had no qualms helping his get a "not guilty" verdict.
So, enjoy the fine performances in this film but take things with a grain of salt because this story is definitely biased.
The story is a fascinating one and the movie is well-done, too. Was the story biased? Probably since it comes from a book written by attorney shown in the movie but, as someone who mainly knows the story only from this film, I am not qualified to say how much of this is truth, fiction and/or bias. Nonetheless, I am usually intrigued with character studies, another reason I liked this movie.
I only know the story was interesting and Jeremy Irons as "von Bulow;" and Glenn Close his wife "Sunny," and Ron Silver as attorney "Alan Dershowitz," were all fascinating to me, all turning in fine performances. It's ironic that Silver, who played mostly sleazy characters in this timer period, played a law professor. It was appropriate casting. Irons won an Oscar for his effort and is obviously the focus of the story.
The only thing I warn viewers is not to be duped by the message in there that you can't ever know the truth, everything is relative, etc. This is nonsense and the kind of psycho-babble defense lawyers love to spew. What's sad is that all the education in the world, Dershowitz proves here, means nothing if you don't realize there ARE absolutes in the world. Yes, Alan, murder is wrong: that's a black-and-white issue. I'll bet this lawyer would have loved to be on the O.J. Simpson trial, too, and would have had no qualms helping his get a "not guilty" verdict.
So, enjoy the fine performances in this film but take things with a grain of salt because this story is definitely biased.