Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Janet Maslin of the New York Times called the film "a pedantic specimen," "dutiful in outlook and utterly conventional in format," and said it "does little beyond appreciating its subject as unwaveringly as possible." Film critic Leonard Maltin gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, and commented: "Too long – and pedantic – for some viewers, but a must for Rand enthusiasts.

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said the film "is not what one might expect at this stage in Rand's literary afterlife. The film doesn't make a case for her as an artist or philosopher, nor does it delineate her place in the pantheon of letters. It just assumes her importance and goes about telling her story . . . Obviously this was a woman of enormous courage, tenacity and fire. That comes through enough in Ayn Rand to make one wonder what she would have thought about the tone of the documentary, which at times borders on sappy . . . The tone will become grating even to anyone who is in sympathy with Rand's work. Though the documentary concentrates on the biographical, it glosses over the major embarrassment of her personal life – her adulterous relationship with her much younger disciple, Nathaniel Branden . . . Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life isn't nearly ambitious enough, but as an introduction to an important 20th century American voice, it works."

Todd McCarthy of Variety observed, "Benefiting from some first-rate archival, personal and commercial film material, Michael Paxton's Oscar-nominated effort serves as a solid and appreciative precis of her life and world views, but doesn't get down in the trenches to illustrate how and why she stirred up such passions pro and con, and gingerly refrains from analyzing the paradoxes and complexities of her personality and intimate relationships."