Most critics take the film to be Kiarostami at his most distilled: a man drives the outskirts of Tehran asking strangers to help him with his own death, and the pleasure, such as it is, lies in the talk and the terrain rather than in incident. Praise clusters around the direction and the plain, patient shooting, with several reviews singling out the conversations with the men he picks up, one about the sweetness of fruit in particular, and the dusty industrial landscape. Seven of nine call it a serious and humane piece of work.
The dissent is sharp rather than mild. Roger Ebert finds it excruciatingly dull and calls the slow, monotone style an affectation; Empire likes the shifts of scenery and colour but feels cheated by the ending. Even admirers hedge on that ending, which Variety expects to disappoint some, though The Playlist argues that calling the film dull misses the point. The spread is wide: enthusiasm or impatience, little in between.