Eleanor the Great, 2025.
Directed by Scarlett Johansson.
Starring June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Hecht, Rita Zohar, Will Price, Cole Tristan Murphy, Stephen Singer, Jacob Flekier, Kathryn Mayer, Zach Fike Hodges, Jenna Kray, Lauren Klein, Raymond Anthony Thomas, Elaine Bromka, Tristan Murphy, and Stephen C. Bradbury.
SYNOPSIS:
After a devastating loss, witty and proudly troublesome Eleanor Morgenstein, 94, tells a tale that takes on a dangerous life of its own.
Starting from a familiar place, the eponymous 94-year-old Eleanor (June Squibb) in director Scarlett Johansson’s debut feature, Eleanor the Great, is forced to move in with her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht) and college-aged grandson Max (Will Price) under encouragement to swallow some pride and enroll in a retirement home. She wants to spend the day at Coney Island with her daughter or make dinner with her grandson, except both of them are too busy in their own lives to commit. Once the dinner plans with Max fall through, Eleanor makes a grave mistake that the film is determined to brush off as ultimately well-meaning in its deception, complete with a saccharine tone that even June Squibb’s towering comedic sensibilities and emotional chops cannot overcome.
Eleanor calls back aspiring journalist Nina (Erin Kellyman), whom she met at a Holocaust survivors’ support group, to fabricate a story about surviving the Holocaust. Yes, that is what this movie is about. Shockingly, it is played straight as a weepy drama about grief and unexpected friendship.
To be fair, Eleanor’s story is not a complete lie; she is lifting events from the life of her now deceased best friend, Bessie (Rita Zohar, appearing in flashbacks and a prologue), to give to Nina that would make for a compelling article, to ease her loneliness, and perhaps to understand better what her friend went through. There are also pointless dynamics at play here, such as Nina’s father (Chiwetel Ejiofor) as Bessie’s favorite news anchor. As for Nina, she is putting down her poetry writing and taking a crack at journalism, specifically the area of grief, as an outlet to help process and potentially move on from the tragic loss of her mother. Her father never speaks about it and disapproves of poetry, as it would be difficult to turn into a full-time career.
As expected, June Squibb is superb at delivering snappy dialogue (amusingly remarking that Lisa would put Eleanor in Guantánamo Bay if there was an opening) and developing warm chemistry with Nina, even if it is under an act of deception. The friendship that develops between her and Nina is organic and sweet, and almost enough to overcome the severely flawed approach to storytelling here.
Where Eleanor the Great stumbles into misguided mid territory is its mawkish tone, which should be leaning into how absurd this premise is, rather than gearing up for unbearable sap and predictable plot beats. This is a film that should be finding some dark humor in Eleanor’s efforts to keep this deception going while aware that this is too extreme a lie that she usually gets herself into (such as pretending that the wing of the hospital was named after her common surname, all to get Bessie immediate attention).
Perhaps more questionably is that, even in its never-ending barrage of final big speeches, Scarlett Johansson (working from a screenplay by Tory Kamen) is content letting this unhinged deception off the hook, with characters reiterating that the intentions behind a lie are what really matters, and that both Eleanor and Nina were looking for connection under circumstances that have left them isolated and alone, with no one to talk to about their problems or much of anything. There is also a case to be made that there is a more sincere and emotionally affecting story to be told by bypassing the lie, and having Eleanor be forthright that it was an accident she ended up in a Holocaust survivors’ support group, but was best friends with a survivor.
Eleanor the Great is worth watching simply for the lunacy of the project and morbid curiosity, watching on in disbelief, but it fails to do anything meaningful or complex with the characters and their situation, settling for cheesy, unearned emotional manipulation.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
