Entertainment

Jungle Jane takes a nap

“Jane’s Journey” is an exceedingly graceful and dignified sleep aid, a first-person account by chimpanzee advocate Jane Goodall in which we mainly learn that Goodall indeed spent a lot of time hanging around with primates.

Archival footage from the earliest ’60s reveals that Goodall, a British girl with no previous expertise in the subject who simply saved her money until she had enough to roam away to Tanzania, was a leggy jungle hottie, and from the filmed juxtaposition of her and the apes her fame sprang. It’s nice that Goodall is an official UN Messenger of Peace, whatever that is, but the film makes the huge mistake of assuming we already find Goodall fascinating going in. In fact she is hardly much of a celebrity anymore (and is mainly known for making the same sort of save-the-planet statements that many others have made).

As she narrates slender anecdotes and gives remarkably trite advice (she allegedly loves to laugh but never says anything funny; she also tells us that life is about more than money), you may have the feeling of being stuck at a nice old lady’s house while she narrates a meandering slide show in slow, storybook tones. The nature photography of her wanderings is lovely, though. And as soothing as Sominex.