Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 18 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 19 Ratings

  • Starring: Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons
  • Summary: Jeremy Irons plays socialite Claus von Bulow, seeking legal exoneration in the most sensational attempted murder scandal of the 1980s. (Warner Bros.)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 18
  2. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. 100
    What makes it such a mesmerizing, wickedly witty entertainment is the revealing portrait it paints of an era in which everyone is presumed guilty where greed is concerned... It's an often chilly movie, but the chill cuts to the bone.
  2. 100
    It is a surprisingly entertaining film - funny, wicked, sharp-tongued and devious. It does not solve the case, nor intend to. I am afraid it only intends to entertain.
  3. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    80
    Irons's canny performance dominates the film. He plays the role with apparent frankness and dignity rather than melodramatic villainy.
  4. 60
    Dershowitz's life-enhancing scenes are flatulent, and they're dishonest: the movie seems to be putting us down for enjoying the scandal satire it's dishing up. [19 Nov 1990]

See all 18 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 10
  2. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. BrendanH.
    9
    I've watched RofV six times and I never get tired of it. Never get tired of Ron Silver's vastly underrated performance, Jeremy Irons' introverted despair, Glenn Close's intoxicating mix of rage and ennui. The film confronts our assumptions of the "whodunnit" and turns them on their head. In RoV, as in life, we can't always come to definite conclusions to what happened, or why; whether a man is good, evil, or lives in some point in between. Doesn't deserve to be mentioned with "The Godfather", but I love this movie. I think I'll watch it another six times. Expand
  2. HanselH.
    7
    No. 9 on the all time metacritic list? No way. Not a bad movie. But highly overrated.

See all 10 User Reviews