Most critics respond warmly to Hear My Song, with praise clustering around Peter Chelsom’s light touch, the romantic comedy’s sense of community and Adrian Dunbar’s impudent charm. The favourable reviews find that its Irish whimsy, broad humour and bittersweet romance work well together, making the search for singer Josef Locke worth caring about. They also credit Chelsom with handling sentiment confidently, though even some admirers suggest that a taste for fanciful comedy is a condition of enjoying it.
The disagreement is chiefly over how much charm and sentiment the film can sustain, and the range of opinion is wide despite the favourable majority. Variety finds the later stretches excessive, while still praising Dunbar’s lead performance. Time Out is the clear dissenter, regarding the same warmth as ingratiating and the tone as maudlin, though it makes an exception for Beatty’s performance.