roger ebert gave it two stars, saying the film was marked by a "quiet sadness" and the "film examines the way that naive idealists took on more than they could handle." he suggests that the film tries to humanize both sides but seems muddled. ebert writes, "the point of view is that of a middle-age man who no longer quite understands why, as a youth, he was so sure of things that now seem so puzzling."