Having long given up chimp studying for planet saving, anthropologist Jane Goodall is unquestionably a do-gooder in a morally fraught world. Yet it's precisely this lack of inquisitiveness into its subject that dooms Lorenz Knauer's cinematic portrait of the celebrated scientist. Jane's Journey alternates talking-head testimonials (ranging from colleagues and family members to Angelina Jolie) regarding Goodall's greatness with the woman herself discussing her many organizations' charitable deeds. Any analysis of her philanthropy or character is traded for blind idol worship; only intermittent footage of the subject interacting with the natural environments she hopes to save (hippo habitats, arctic snowscapes) manages to sidestep bland reverence.
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