Other reviews were less positive. The "Los Angeles Times" Carina Chocano felt that "despite flashes of genuine emotion ["The Go-Getter"] eventually succumbs to its own tweeness" and that the "moments of beauty" were outweighed by "the mannered dialogue and hamstrung performances". Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" graded the film as a C, saying that it "travels, but it doesn't go anywhere" and likening Pucci to "a wan, passive Johnny Depp". "The Hollywood Reporter" critic Frank Scheck praised the film's "appealing performances, sun-dappled cinematography and occasional witty dialogue", but thought that it was "contrived and derivative" and "a little too pleased with itself". "The Globe and Mail"s Rick Groen called "The Go-Getter" "a fairly well-made picture that's just been fairly well-made too many times before, a knock-off of a thousand other knock-offs". Gabriel Wilder of "The Sydney Morning Herald" felt that it was "hard to maintain interest in [Mercer's] plight" because of Pucci's underacting and thought that "the script isn't so much quirky as incomplete", referring to the film's ending. With a rating of 2.5 out of 4, Maitland McDonagh wrote for "TV Guide" that the film is "too familiar to make any great impression".