Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times described the film as an "unusually good-looking movie", but said the complexities of its dialogue may be challenging to viewers and it will "most likely appeal to people who already agree with" its ecologically-minded ideas. Wilmington had praise for the lead actors, writing, "Ullmann, Waterston and Heard are such expert actors that they’re able to bend the script’s seeming didacticism: Ullmann by a quiet intensity that recalls her best roles for Ingmar Bergman; Waterston by a halting, gravelly, almost ingenuous phrasing that suggests Jerry Brown trying to be Jimmy Stewart; and Heard by a flow of spontaneous wisecracks, only some of which sound scripted. If the levels of personality aren’t too deeply in the script, the actors supply them."