Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" had mixed feelings about the film but did like the acting and the screenplay, and wrote, ""At Play in the Fields of the Lord" doesn't play smoothly, but it often plays well ... Mr. Lithgow and Miss Hannah, who grows more secure as an actress with every film, are fine in complex roles that are exceptionally well written ... Though the film features a spectacular penultimate sequence, it seems not to know how to end. It sort of drifts away, perhaps trying to soften its own well-earned pessimism."