 Desmond Ryan of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" wrote "Rarely has the impossibility of love been more wrenchingly presented than in the scenes of dashed hope between Firth and Richardson.However, Nigel Andrews of the "Financial Times" found it "like a pastoral parable that has been left outside in the damp too long, causing its batteries to go flat" and following a 2008 screening, Sam Jordison of "The Guardian" suggested "even though this film is (unusually) faithful to the book...it is really little better than inoffensive.Somehow the magic that makes JL Carr's book so precious is missing."