The reviews are unanimous in their approval. Most critics treat Chaplin’s first feature as the point where his comedy learned to carry real feeling, and they return again and again to the same source: the bond between the Tramp and the abandoned boy he raises. Jackie Coogan’s performance is praised in nearly every piece, from the earliest notices onward, and several single out the heaven dream sequence, along with the rooftop chase, as the film’s best-remembered set pieces.
The spread is narrow, and the only real reservation concerns sentiment. Empire finds the sentimentality heavy-handed enough to mar an otherwise fine comedy, while Time Out argues the opposite, that the pathos is held in check by an unusually harsh picture of slum life. Nobody dissents from the verdict; the reviews differ only on how much sweetness Chaplin should have been allowed.