Ben Brantley of the New York Times:He saw "vestiges of Laurence Olivier" in Ralph Fiennes's performance as Francie Hardy, which felt "both as old as folklore and so fresh that it might be painted in wet blood".
Rarely, said Brantley, had Fiennes's trademark "self-lacerating vanity" been put to such powerful use. While describing Ian McDiarmid's performance as Teddy as "beyond reproach", Brantley almost reluctantly criticised Cherry Jones, in the role of Grace Hardy, as the production's "weak link". She was "too palpably strong as a woman who sees her very identity erased by the man she loves".
Yet her balance of resentment and agony, he soothed, was "beautifully sustained".
David Rooney of Variety:
He praised both the "melancholy beauty" of Friel's writing and the "measured, cumulative lucidity of Kent's probing production". Jones's performance was "powerful and affecting", but Fiennes's presence was "somewhat underpowered", especially in the opening monologue.
"Fiennes's cool approach perhaps leaves us too much time to consider his impressive technique," wrote Rooney, hailing McDiarmid's Teddy as the production's "most astonishing" performance.
Michael Kuchwara of the Washington Post:
Francie Hardy was "a role Fiennes was born to play". He heaped praise also on Jones and McDiarmid.
If there was a chiding voice in the critical pack, it was that of Eric Grode in the New York Sun, who found the monologues were treated "too reverently", the actors' movement too restrained and both Fiennes and Jones "surprisingly careless with their accents". For Grode, a "dust of piety" hung over the "well-intentioned but enervating" production.