Hal Erickson of AllMovie described Dead Man's Float as a "very short and occasionally sweet juvenile melodrama. A cheeky bunch of children who think they're pretty smart are in for a rude awakening when they confront a gang of drug smugglers who play for keeps." During 1981 Boyden was associated with US actor, Christopher Atkins, which Ian Rolph of The Australian Women's Weekly described as "a warm friendship with that cool charmer from The Blue Lagoon, [Atkins], here to star in The Pirate Movie." In May 1983 she acted in an Australian stage version of Sound of Music at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne.
