Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" called the film "a period comedy of manners merged with a suspenseful psychological thriller aspires to be a hybrid of the sort that Alfred Hitchcock polished to perfection in the age of sexual subtext and subterfuge" but added it "does not provide the shivery security of being manipulated by Hitchcock, a master trickster who calculated his every move. The sense of being guided through a story by a sure-handed Hollywood magician toward a delightful trick ending is missing."