 The website's critical consensus reads, "Like its subject, "Ask Dr. Ruth" has a breezy charm that's hard to resist – and a message that's as important as it is entertaining".Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".Maureen Lee Lenker of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote, "this ["Ask Dr. Ruth"] film is a compelling, stirring testament to that fact even if it offers up less insight about what makes her tick from the woman herself than one might crave".