"Variety" said the film was "consistently funny, though more academic than boulevardier", and the "Christian Science Monitor" called it "amazingly funny and poignant". "Time Out" described it as "a strong contender for Allen's most fascinating film", while "TV Guide" said, "Allen's ongoing struggles with psychoanalysis and his Jewish identity – stridently literal preoccupations in most of his work – are for once rendered allegorically. The result is deeply satisfying". Gene Siskel gave the film two stars out of four, calling it "a beautifully made but slight fable." Pauline Kael wrote that when the film was over "I felt good, but I was still a little hungry for a movie. There's a reason 'Zelig' seems small; there aren't any characters in it, not even Zelig."