"It has an odd, nonchalant charm; it's fun. But it's softhearted fun - shaggy-dog minimalism - and it doesn't have enough ideas (or laughs) for its 90-minute length. It's so hemmed in that it has the feel of a mousy Eastern European comedy."
-Pauline Kael
"I didn't think much of it."
-Derek Malcolm, The Guardian
"Has all the pretensions of being significant without ever being moe than an art-house oddity designed to appeal to those who paronise ordinary people as interesting social types."
- Jeff Sawtell, Morning Star
"Deeply soporific . . . Style-buffs may appreciate those shirts, those hats, that awful Fifties architecture; for others, it will be worse than Mogadon."
- Hugo Davenport, Daily Telegraph
"So cool that it leaves me cold"
- Anne Billson, Sunday Telegraph
"Pic's minimalism and unusual nature make it a hard sell commercially, although specialized cinemas could give it a go in brief runs."
- Variety, Cannes Film Festival, May 17, 1984