Eleanor the Great, 2025
Directed by Scarlett Johansson.
Starring June Squib, Erin Kellyman, Jessica Hecht, Rita Zohar, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Will Price.
SYNOPSIS
After a devastating loss, witty and proudly troublesome Eleanor Morgenstein, 94, tells a tale that takes on a dangerous life of its own.
Marvel veteran Scarlett Johansson takes the director’s chair in her debut feature Eleanor the Great with June Squib in an emotional and moving role as a woman who loses her best friend. The film’s ruminations on grief are all too relatable as Squib and her fellow castmates give incredible performances in this funny and poignant film.
Squib stars as Eleanor, an elderly woman who has known her best friend Bessie for decades and lived with her for over a decade after the death of their husbands, but when Bessie suddenly dies Eleanor moves from Florida to New York to live with her daughter and grandson. In an effort to get out and make new friends, Eleanor accidently stumbles upon a support group for Holocaust survivors and tells Bessie’s story as her own. When journalism student Nina decides to feature Eleanor as the subject of her class project, Eleanor finds herself in a mounting series of white lies between her, Nina and her own family as she struggles to adjust to her new life without Bessie.
Squib is absolutely fantastic as Eleanor, delivering an emotional performance full of quick-witted humour, kindness and grief. With only one exception, which will be talked more of below, she steals the scene of whoever she shares it with through her charm and presence. In any other circumstance it might be easy to label someone who passes themselves off as a Holocaust survivor an immoral monster, but Squib imbues in June a likeability and sense of sadness that makes viewers empathize with her despite her actions
Also outstanding is Erin Kellyman as Nina, the young journalism student who befriends June, as she is also going through a terrible time mourning her recently deceased mother. Kellyman carries both the pain of her mother’s loss and character’s lightness through her humour and faith in people, but conveys a seriousness when the pain becomes too much. The chemistry between her and Squib is great as their connection feels authentic and deeply emotional as they discuss how loss and grief can transform a person. You feel for Nina just as much as you do for June and root for their friendship.
The one exception that steals the show from Squib is Rita Zohar as Bessie, whose presence is felt throughout the film despite how little screentime she has. After her early passing, Zohar appears sporadically as Eleanor flashes back to Bessie telling her story of escaping the Holocaust and gives an incredibly moving and emotional performance. The pain, trauma and sadness is clear and while Squib’s performance is the centrepiece of the film, Zohar’s is undoubtedly the backbone.
One of the most interesting themes Eleanor the Great examines is the insight into how grief can affect a person from the three different viewpoints in age as Squib mourns Bessie while Kellyman’s Nina and her father played by Chiwetel Ejiofor mourn their mother and wife. Each one has a different response in how to deal with their losses as Ejiofor closes in on himself and becomes distant with Nina even as she tries finding ways to keep that connection alive. It’s an all too relatable reminder that grief doesn’t have a set checklist of what to do and Johansson captures that very well through her direction and the cast’s performances.
Eleanor the Great is a poignant and moving film with Squib giving one of her best performances of her long career. She carries the film and her chemistry with Kellyman, Zohar and the rest of the cast is charming, emotional and heartfelt. For her debut film, Johansson certainly highlights her skill as a director by capturing the different ways loss and grief can affect a person with her character introspection and narrative storytelling.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
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