[2][3] Stephen Farber of The New York Times wrote, "In doing his adaptation, Mr. Lambert made some radical simplifications, reducing the Boss Finley story to a bare minimum."

Sweet Bird of Youth, "like many other Williams plays, was rewritten several times by the playwright, and Mr. Lambert consulted the different versions that still exist," Farber wrote.

"In some ways," Farber wrote, "the television film is bolder than the 1962 movie version of the play, which starred Geraldine Page and Paul Newman in the roles they had also created on Broadway.

In his review for The New York Times on September 29, 1989, John J. O'Connor wrote, "Apparently gaining weight again, Miss Taylor wears loose-fitting clothes and is often displayed in extremely dim lighting, which tends to shove Mr. Harmon further into the shadows.

In summary, he wrote, "Idiosyncratic film director Nicolas (The Man Who Fell to Earth [1976]) Roeg gives us endless close-ups of his two stars' dazzling blue eyes—but the production doesn't add up to anything memorable.

"[6] Joseph Walker of Deseret News wrote that the film, "with its seaminess and overt sexuality, is not the kind of Sunday night viewing everyone will enjoy.

"[7] Brenda Murphy noted that, while Richard Brooks's adaptation focused on Chance Wayne, "Nicolas Roeg's centering of the Princess creates a darker film about the inevitable loss of youth and the despairing or resilient responses to it that are possible.