Variety's review of Mike Leigh's new drama "Tender Loving Care" finds the film falls short of the writer-director's best work, despite strong performances from its cast. The film explores multiple forms of "care" through its characters, but the critic argues this thematic scattering leaves the film feeling schematic rather than powerfully unified, unlike Leigh's standout films such as "Secrets & Lies", "Topsy-Turvy" and "Another Year".

The story centres on Amy (Kate O'Flynn), a social worker who moves back in with her best friend and fellow social worker Rosie (Alice Bailey Johnson) after a relationship ends, against a backdrop of public-sector budget cuts affecting their work. The film also follows Amy's elderly parents, played by Marion Bailey (Leigh's real-life partner) and Paul Jesson, whose character's decline into dementia forms one of the film's most affecting threads. The reviewer praises individual scenes and performances as typically vivid and true-to-life for a Leigh film, but ultimately wanted deeper exploration of the characters' inner lives and traumas rather than a broader survey of caregiving themes.