Most critics warm to The Accidental Tourist as a bittersweet comedy that lets its sadness and its laughter sit side by side. The praise gathers around William Hurt, whose withdrawn, grief-stricken travel writer is called finely observed and quietly compelling in nearly every review, and around Geena Davis, whose eccentric dog trainer supplies most of the lift. Kasdan’s direction and the screenplay’s small shifts of tone are credited with keeping the film gentle rather than glum, and the oddball Leary family is a recurring pleasure.
The spread is narrow at the top, then drops sharply. Variety finds it slow and sonorous but largely satisfying, and Kathleen Turner draws admiring mentions from more than one critic. The one real dissent comes from The New York Times, which argues the adaptation is too literary for its own good, that the plot rambles, and that Hurt’s morose performance misses the novel’s subtleties. Later reviews are as fond of the film as the first ones.