The Ultimate Gift is the latest release from the new religious-film division of 20th Century Fox, Fox Faith. Lawrence Toppman in the Charlotte Observer worries that "critics and audiences may relegate it to the God Ghetto reserved for inspirational films. That would be too bad, because it's worth considering regardless of your religious bent -- or whether you have any religious feeling at all." Mark Olsen in the Los Angeles Times comments that the movie "feels less like a sermon and more like a film with a good, if somewhat sappy, heart." But Lisa Kennedy in the Denver Post describes it as "less a theatrical feature than a Sunday night made-for-TV movie brought to you by Hallmark." And Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Daily News remarks that the movie reeks of "self-righteousness and moral reprimand ... a cinematic sermon that even reprises its bullet points during the end credits."