The Timess chief film critic Kevin Maher panned the film in his 1-star review, writing, "The overall impression is of a clueless film toadying up to an uninterested novelist". Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times noticed that the film was "unlikely to satisfy your literary curiosity". Andrew Lapin of NPR criticized the film for having "almost no narrative structure, which is not the sort of thing you want to say about anything associated with the biggest name in modern fiction". Jennifer Szalai of The New York Times deemed the film "bland", concluding, "It quickly becomes clear that the time it takes to sit through this padded mash note would be better spent immersed in Ferrante's mesmerizing work instead".
