Journalist Steven Boone said that while the film was well reviewed for "its bracing drabness, its ugliness, its lack of style", he believed it was "beautiful and stylized", because "it is "alive" and piercingly present-tense". He compared it with the films of the Dardenne brothers. Mungiu said he aimed to begin scenes, including the first, without giving the audience background information and letting viewers discern what was happening. Journalist Lauren Wissot judged the story "a suspense thriller", comparable to the work of Alfred Hitchcock. She felt "heat" in each frame, writing "we're waiting for the bomb— the constant threat of imprisonment or death that defined life under Nicolae Ceaucescu". Aside from reflecting the length of the fictional pregnancy, the 4-3-2 form of the title creates the impression of rushed countdown reinforcing the thriller genre aspects, Gradea wrote.