 Many film critics praised Fonda's work – Leonard Maltin cited it as the main reason to see the film (which he otherwise deemed only "moderately successful").Charles Champlin likewise praised her performance, and wrote that her contemporary persona dovetailed well with Mercer's dialogue, which "skillfully drops the stilted period rhetoric without going colloquial or slangy".Some critics have suggested that the film suffers under the weight of Fonda's public image.