Marya E. Gates Moviefone Feb 13, 2024

A stunning profile of a complex person, ‘Jane Fonda In Five Acts’ excels at capturing all the intricacies that make us who we are and inspires us to keep working on our own unfinished self-portraits.

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Cate Marquis AWFJ.org Oct 12, 2021

For Jane Fonda fans, this documentary is an in-depth look inside her life, although like any autobiography, it lacks outside perspective. It is the life of Jane Fonda as Jane Fonda would tell it.

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Betsy Bozdech AWFJ.org Oct 12, 2021

Lacy's camera captures one of America's most well-known women at both her proudest and her most vulnerable, and the end result is sympathetic and satisfying.

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Brian Bromberger Bay Area Reporter Jun 1, 2020

The journey, despite having already been essayed in her 2005 bestselling memoir My Life So Far, with the assistance of archival footage, is a fascinating if ambivalent one.

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Susan Wloszczyna AWFJ.org Jan 23, 2020

Pictures often speak louder than words, and filmmaker Susan Lacy does a masterful job of summing up this amazing female icon with her documentary, Jane Fonda in Five Acts.

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Glenn Dunks Onya Magazine Dec 24, 2018 B+

Her mug shot may be used as the central marketing hook, but there was so much more to Fonda than just "Hanoi Jane" and I liked that Five Acts gave equal weight to all of her work both on and off screen.

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David Fear Rolling Stone Dec 20, 2018

She's a legend, sure. But now she's not Henry's daughter, or Roger/Tom/Ted's wife, or Bree Daniels. She's just Jane, the doc suggests, plain old Jane. It only took decades to get there.

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Gwen Ihnat AV Club Dec 14, 2018 A

Fonda is so solid throughout the documentary that an enthusiastic reference to a prophetic psychic reading sticks out as a flighty departure.

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Julia Raeside Guardian Nov 6, 2018 2/5

Modern documentaries have led us to expect more rigour in their storytelling but this, despite its willingness to touch on family discord and so on, keeps a respectful distance that ultimately frustrates.

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Michael A. Smith MediaMikes Oct 25, 2018 5/5

At age 80, Jane Fonda is still going strong. Here's to act number six!

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Diane Pershing Malibu Times Oct 15, 2018

This HBO production is too long. And I found some of the modern day interviews somewhat self-serving and filled with inconsistencies. On the other hand, who among us can look back on long lives with total emotional and factual recall?

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Leigh Paatsch Herald Sun (Australia) Oct 5, 2018 4.5/5

Two hours of your time very well spent.

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Anne Brodie What She Said Oct 2, 2018

The emotional and often raw documentary Jane Fonda in Five Acts, presents a woman of contradictions, an activist who ended a marriage to fulfill her need to make the world a better place

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Chloe Walker Film Inquiry Sep 29, 2018

This a film that celebrates change and transformation; the power that comes from our ability to learn from our mistakes and to grow. Like the woman at the centre of it all, it's inspirational.

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Michael Idato Sydney Morning Herald Sep 28, 2018

What [the film] is throughout is tender, more a watercolour than an oil, which ultimately paints its subject in detail but in tender shades.

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Sarah Knight Adamson Sarah's Backstage Pass Sep 27, 2018 3.5/4

The poignancy of Fonda's point of view on the various topics adds tremendously to the unfolding of this excellent film. Fonda makes no excuses saying, "I am what I am."

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Judy Berman TIME Magazine Sep 25, 2018

As seen through Lacy's compassionate lens, the Jane Fonda who lays bare her life in Five Acts is introspective and affable, confident yet forthcoming about her flaws and failures.

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Dorothy Rabinowitz Wall Street Journal Sep 24, 2018

It's hard to overstate the pleasures of this film or, more precisely, this encounter with its subject.

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Matt Zoller Seitz New York Magazine/Vulture Sep 24, 2018

This is an engrossing feature that will fascinate anyone interested in Fonda's life and work.

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John Powers NPR's Fresh Air Sep 24, 2018

Although this doc is as conventional as Fonda herself has never been, Lacy tells a terrific story. The film reminds us why Fonda is the only actress of the '60s generation whose name still resonates.

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