The new feature by Nikita Mikhalkov (Slave of Love, Unfinished Piece for Player Piano) was hailed by Variety's Ron Holloway as the best film of the 1983 Moscow Film Festival. He writes, “It features but two actors in a drama of constant one-upmanship. The performances by Irina Kupchenko and Mikhail Ulyanov are simply outstanding. The action takes place entirely in a two-room flat. Ulyanov decides one evening to visit his (ex-) wife.... What happened to sour the relationship soon becomes the subject of conversation; meanwhile, the ex-husband tries at repeated opportunities to seduce her again (and it) comes to light that Kupchenko is about to marry (his) colleague.... This is a psychological war-of-words in the best tradition of Chekhov and Gorky. It's also Nikita Mikhalkov's best film in a fast-rising career that places him now at the forefront of contemporary Soviet cinema.”