The film was well received by audiences and praised for its technique and performances. "The Man Who Wasn't There" has an approval rating of 81% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 159 reviews, and an average rating of 7.07/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Stylish but emotionally distant, "The Man Who Wasn't There" is a clever tribute to the film noir genre. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".