It is today considered one of Antonioni's more important works. David Sin wrote "The intervening years appear not to have diminished its impact as an innovative work of cinema, nor as a wider critique of the age in which we live. The film retains a formal playfulness, with its open form offering different ways of watching and projecting onto the characters [...] and the overall atmosphere of ennui, so beautifully constructed through sound and image, still feels heavily familiar." Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" called the film "visionary" and argued, "Antonioni opens up a sinkhole of existential dismay in the Roman streets and asks us to drop down into it. What a strange and brilliant film it is."