The "Chicago Sun-Times"' Roger Ebert wrote that some may take the approach "that no respectable journalist would ever do the things that Sally Field does about, to, and with Paul Newman in this movie. She is a disgrace to her profession." Instead he preferred a "romantic" approach, writing that he "liked this movie despite its factual and ethical problems" and was not "even so sure they matter so much to most viewers". Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" found the movie "lacking in momentum", but praised its "quiet gravity". Dave Kehr of the "Chicago Reader" disliked "Absence of Malice", writing that "the picture has a smug, demoralizing sense of pervasive corruption". Although Pauline Kael described the film as only "moderately entertaining", she offered higher praise for Newman's "sly, compact performance" and particularly for "the marvelously inventive acting of Melinda Dillon".