The reviews are uniformly warm. Most critics take The Snapper as a welcome return to the Dublin of The Commitments, and the praise settles in two places: Roddy Doyle’s script, with its quick, caustic but never cruel jokes and its love of talk, and Colm Meaney’s performance as the exasperated, resilient father. Several critics call it a small, joyful film that shows what situation comedy can still do when care is taken, and admire the way it balances laughter against real distress.
Reservations are few and the spread is narrow, from good to warmly recommended. Time Out notes the film is tougher and more downbeat than The Commitments, though it finds the ending deeply affecting. The Independent, while enjoying it, thinks the film sidesteps harder social realities such as religion and the imbalance between the sexes. Empire remarks that the Curley household is realistic yet idealised. Nobody dislikes it; the only question is how much to warm to it.