 Vincent Canby, chief critic for "The New York Times", wrote that he preferred the theatricality of the stage production, but "Now, after seeing Sidney Lumet's comparatively realistic film version, it's possible to appreciate Mr. Shaffer's text for what it is— an extraordinarily skillful, passionate inquiry into the entire Freudian method".Canby also found the movie's realism excessive, and said that "the movie exhausts us with information", specifically citing the scene where Alan rides a horse bareback as giving the viewers "anticlimactic detail".Canby also concluded "This is the best Burton performance since "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?""