Carina Chocano of the "Los Angeles Times" stated the film "nestles comfortably in that Scottish-Celtic niche of cozy, overcast, working-class fairy tales that seem to smell faintly of fried fish and beer ... Not that "Dear Frankie" aspires to any kind of hardened realism. On the contrary, it caters to a particular type of Anglophile fantasy, the kind where the china doesn't match and the chintz is dingy, but people look out for one another and love sprouts easily in the humidity ... surprises are few and low-key, but the story wraps up nicely. In that way, the movie is not unlike the fish dinners Frankie ... procures from Marie - slightly soggy and bland, but as warm, starchy and satisfying as a box of fries."