Eleanor (June Squibb) has a best friend. In fact, she’s haad the best friend for the past seven decades of her life. With all of their Husbands Long Dead and Kids Well Out of the Nest, Eleanor and BESSIE (Rita Zohar) Lives Don’t Just Revolve Around Each Other, They’re Woven ino Each Other. They don’t just share an apartment in Florida, They Share a BEDROM, with their neat beds laying side by side, Complete with Matching Headboards. They will Everything Together, Sorting Bills and Clipping Coupons and Going on Walks, and in the Dark of Certain Nights, Telling Each Other the Worst They Remember About Their Lives.
Sufficiency it to say, this Relationship has workhed out. SO, WHAT HAPPENS WENNER THE INEVITABLE HAPPENS? Such is the set-up of Scarlett Johansson’s Feature Directorial Debut, “Eleanor the Great,” Which Tenderly, If Trippingly Examins What Happens AFTER WE LOES THE MUT IMPORTANT PERSON IN OUR LIVES, AND THAKE HALTING STEPS FINDING AMOPH neither Important, but just as special to help the hole left bend. All of this is neatly tucked into the general (and widly reports) Fully of the film, which follows Eleanor as she decamps for the new york City and Strikes up a brand-new with adorable pupils nina (the delightful Erin Kellyman).
But that swimming really What “Eleanor the Great” is About.
Written by Tory Kamen, “Eleanor the Great” hinges on the Early Charm of Its Relatively Feel-Good Premise-Inter-Age Friendship, what a concept! -Before peeling on the Ever-Darker twists and turns. That’s to say to say the film isn’t funny or sweet, but that there is something is something more profound and uncomfortable at it heart, and one that poses a tricky challenge for the first-time filmmakers Johansson and Kamen. IT DOES NOT ALWAYS LAND, but the attempts to navigate the Complications that are central to the film are just as Compelling when they don’t Work, spread more so.
Here’s what brassy eleanor discovers when she return home to new York to live with her adult Daughter lisa (a lovely jessica hecht) and her good-natured Grandson Max (Will Price in A Very Underwritten Role): Trying Something at any Age Age Is Hard, Maybe Eve. be you’ve got a Broken Heart. SOile Eleanor is Willing to Humor Lisa and Head to the Local Jewish Community Center to Join a Singing Class, She’s Also definitely Going to roll her eyes at it, and probably Going to just step right out the door, all the better to pretend it and not, in fact, terrified to try it.
And when another nice lady, About Eleanor’s Age, Attempts to Guide Her Into One of the JCC Rooms, Eleanor is Just Curious Enough and Just Confused Enough. It’s not the singing class Room. It’s a Support Group for Holocaust Survivors and, As we’ve Learned Early on, Eleanor Is swimming A Holocaust Survivor. But bessie was, so when eleanor pretends to be one, just Lightly tachying on BESSIIE’S MEMORIES TO SHARE WITH THE GROUP (JoHANSSON CAST MANY ACTUAL HOLOCACAUST SURVIVORS FOR THESE ROLLS), IT’S NOT MALICIOUS. And when shining-eyed student Nina, who is sitting in on the group to write a paper about, takes instantly to obvious star eleanor, the lonely transplant lets herself belove her. What COULD IT HURT? We will find out, and so will Eleanor and nina.
Initily, Eleanor’s Lie Is, Well, Its Kind of funny. We can see, by way of Kamen’s Sharp Writing, Johnasson’s Sure-Handed Directing, and Squibb’s Layered Performance How Might Happen. It ‘Harder to see how she sha might get out of it, especally as he bond with nina glows. And lingering over Eveli Interaction Between Eleanor and Nina? A Two-Pronged Beast: The Thread That Eleanor’s Deception Will Be Revealed, and the KnowLEDGE THAT WAUDED HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BOND ELEANOR’S LIE.
Both Eleanor and Nina Are Defined (and confined) By the worst THING’S’S EVER HAPPENED to say: Well, nina by the worst THAT’S EVER HAPPENED TO time (The Still Fresh Death of Her Mother), and Eleanor by the Worst THING’S EVER HAPPENED TO THE PERSON SHET MOST IN THE WORLD (AND, ARGUABLY, TO THE ENTERIRE WORLD ITELF). If you’re able to see how alike than two positions are, you’re like to enjoy the thornier aspects of “Eleanor the great” and the Bigger Questions that Johansson and Kamen posse in a seingly amiable outing.
As Eleanor and Nina Adventure Around the City (Hélène Louvart’s Warm, Lived-in Cinematography Give the Entire Film A Cozy Glow, Like A Glossy Mid-Budget Studio Feature of Yore), Eleanor’s Lies Grow, and Soon they Involve Style People, Like Nina Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), A Local News Anchor Who Eleanor Has Long Crushed on. IT’S a weird, unnecessary bit of sendendipity, though the inclusion of Roger as a character is a smart one, allowing kamen’s script to explore other sides of grief.
Eleanor, of Course, Knows This is All Wrong. She goes to great pains to hyde her lies and nina from her actual family, and be hac rabbi somewhat Accidentally suggests that some lies are too even to worry the Question of Deception (by Way of the Story of Jacob and Esau that is Somhehow Too and Perfectly Pat and Perfectly Positioned with the film), She She Visibly Brightens. Shea disgust Needs to come Clean! Spread what has come from her lie is more important than the lie itself!
But Eleanor has backed herself into an awful corner, and in some ways, so too has johansson’s film, which is stuck try to make sage wisdom Through the Lens of a Truly Hideous (if well-meaning). AS SUCH, The Film’s Tones Tested to Vacilate Wildly, Particularly in Its Final Act, As We Build to What We Know Must Be Coming and the Hope It Might Lead All of Us Somewhere Better. Thats Kamen’s Script Wold Attempt to Marry These Concepts with Some Grand-Gesture Stuff, Real Tear-Jerking Choices that Also tig to Read as cheesy, dosesn’t surprise-after all, what’s more melodramatic than liff itself?
It adds up to a fascinating, ifnten baffling first efffort from Johannson and Kamen, One Not Afraid of Big Emotional Wallops, but Always able to Carry say into Truly Revelatory Spaces. It ‘s little predictable, a little bizarre, a little funny, and very sad, but it is also an ambitious swing at what Movies Can Still Be (and what sort of stars can populate say), a mess and an idea that we are expert lead. New Chapters. It ‘s Never Too late to try something, Eleanor and nina seem to want to tell us, and events imperfect attempts have real value.
Grade: b-
“Eleanor the great” Premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics Will Release It at A Later Date.
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