The film depicts her relationship with Swiss playwright Max Frisch, her friendship with composer Hans Werner Henze, and her trip to Egypt with writer Adolf Opel.

[10] Lee Marshall for ScreenDaily wrote in review that "A touching tribute to a woman who, von Trotta suggests, pitted a radical desire to question everything against the comfortable certainties of the men who surrounded her.

"[11] Marco Vito Oddo graded the film B+ and wrote for Collider, "When so many biopics end in disasters, it is definitely worth praising a refreshing take on the genre, especially when it focuses on a woman who’s equally complicated and fascinating".

While acknowledging that the director "steers clear of judging the real-life figures and their troubled existences," the way these are portrayed "makes them look like they belong to the endless series of bourgeois characters that have been filling our screens for decades".

[14] Similarly to Abbatescianni, Variety's Jessica Kiang wrote how Vicky Krieps couldn't "save an oldfangled biopic," describing the picture as "a mawkish melodrama more interested in poet and author Bachmann's romantic life than her work".