The reviews lean positive: eight of eleven approve and none dislike it. Praise gathers in one place, the rediscovered footage Hugo van Lawick shot in Gombe, which most critics call vivid and immediate and several treat as the film’s whole case. Philip Glass’s score is the other frequent point of approval, credited with making Goodall’s early research feel like something happening now. Goodall herself draws warm notice for her poise, and more than one critic calls this a definitive portrait of her.
The spread is narrow and the reservations mild. Vulture finds the film captivating but is distracted by some of Morgen’s stylistic choices. Time Out, the lowest full rating, thinks the chimpanzee-watching plays as an ordinary nature documentary and suffers beside Blue Planet. The Guardian suggests Goodall is the main asset rather than the filmmaking. Two of the three mixed scores come from reviews readable only in part, so the dissent is thinner than the count implies.