 The senior film writer at the "San Francisco Chronicle", Ruthe Stein, liked the comedy-drama's screenplay, the direction and acting, writing, ""Family Law"—a subtly perceptive charmer that was Argentina's entry for a best foreign film Oscar and might have been nominated in a less competitive year—is in no particular hurry to get where it's going...Although Hendler and Goetz don't really look alike, they manage to convey a family resemblance in their mannerisms, particularly the erect way they carry themselves, as if they're somebody...Aizemberg works wonders.You get the sense from her radiance that the secretary has always had a thing for her boss.His wife's death allowed her to finally express it physically, and she's overjoyed by their intimacy...Ultimately this is a movie about a son's discovery of the man he knows mostly as a father.