In the following essay, Gritten comments on the explicit sexual content in Bitter Moon and discusses the film with Polanski and his actors.

In the following review, Johnson asserts that Bitter Moon, effectively fluctuates between parody and melodrama, despite Polanski's penchant for “bad taste and carnal excess.”

In the following review, Graffy offers a negative assessment of Bitter Moon, calling the film a “lazy male fantasy” that is “shot through with a nasty, prurient misogyny.”

In the following review, Kauffmann assesses three films starring actor Hugh Grant—Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Sirens—and argues that Bitter Moon is the worst of the three.

In the following review, Romney praises Bitter Moon as an underrated film that effectively uses irony and excess in order to deconstruct the conventional romantic love story.

In the following review, Billson asserts that Bitter Moon, while undoubtedly a male fantasy, accurately expresses the power-dynamics of real relationships in the modern world.

In the following review, Rainer comments that Bitter Moon is disappointingly conventional in its attempts to shock the spectator, observing that the film is “like a dirty joke that somehow got lost in the translation.”

In the following review, Lezard faults the heavy-handed thematic content and poor dialogue in Bitter Moon.

In the following review, Simon faults Bitter Moon as a work of soft-core pornography lacking in genuine eroticism, effective performances, or skilled direction.