I followed the investigative accounts of the von Bulow case with that special attention I always pay to the troubles of society people. With their advantages and connections, they have a better chance of being involved in a stimulating crime. Some of them, it is true, simply stab or shoot one another, but a few go to the trouble of using classic means: poisons and deceptions, subterfuge and wit. With all the lack of subtlety in modern murder, it is heartening to find that a few people still aspire to the perfect crime (…) Without nudging us, the film shows us two things. First, why a man might finally be tempted to allow his wife to slip into the oblivion she seems so desperately to desire. Second, how she could have accidentally overdosed in any event. What happened? Who knows? The movie’s strength is its ability to tantalize, to turn the case this way and that, so that the light of evidence falls in one way and then another. You tell me. — Roger Ebert