Greg Quill of the Toronto Star pointed out that Elkoff's script carried elements of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his novel The Great Gatsby and had predictable revelations, but gave praise to the "sensitively and intelligently" written characters and Durst for being a storyteller with "great care and assurance" and an attention to detail on time period without being showy about it, calling it "an earnest, if romanticized, examination of the American class system in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the eternally confounding politics of acceptance and exclusion."
Greg Quill of the Toronto Star noted that Elkoff's script contained elements of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his novel The Great Gatsby, had predictable revelations, but praised the "sensitively and intelligently" written characters and Durst for being a storyteller with "great care and assurance" and an attention to detail on time period without being showy about it, calling it "an earnest, if romanticized, examination of the American class system in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the eternally confounding politics of acceptance and exclusion."