Michael Wilmington of the "Chicago Tribune" said, "Peter Yates' best or best-remembered movies...all excel at showing male interaction. And that's one of the strong points of "Run of the Country." Just as Finney's outstanding trait as an actor is the solidity he gives his parts—his growly voice and bulldog chin pulling the audience one way, his yearning eyes pulling them another—Yates's direction, at its best, has an earthy reliability."