AllMovie

Thanks to Jeremy Irons' performance, Reversal of Fortune is less a conventional murder mystery than a trenchant social satire, a scathing study of a morally corrupt upper class. Working from a book by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, writer Nicholas Kazan gives the film a peculiar, witty tone, avoiding obvious social commentary. Barbet Schroeder's direction is solid, but the film owes its success more to the outstanding performances of its leads. Apart from Irons' Oscar-winning work, Ron Silver and Glenn Close are also terrific as Dershowitz and the spaced-out Sunny von Bulow. Schroeder was previously best known as a producer of some of the best films of the French New Wave.