ELEANOR THE GREAT – Review by T.J. Callahan
Eleanor the Great : “You can’t say when love will happen.”
95 year old actress June Squibb is very much alive in this film about death – she’s Eleanor the Great.
Full of chutzpah and far from farmisht – that’s Eleanor the Great.
An independent woman who moves to New York City for the first time at the age of 94 – that’s Eleanor the Great.
Controlling, but deeply loyal and loving – she’s Eleanor the Great.
Screenwriter Tory Kamens used her own grandmother for inspiration. First time director, award winning actress Scarlett Johansson compassionately guides the scenes from grief to new beginnings after Eleanor wanders into a Holocaust support group instead of a Broadway sing-a-long at her local Jewish community center. All the details are not personally delivered as Squibb comes full circle through her comic and heartwarming antics. Johansson trusts the viewer to understand making for a nice 95 minute film.
Eleanor the Great is about a woman who so loved her lifelong friend she was willing to lie for her. A tale that unexpectedly brought her a new friend that she sorely needed. A tale that spins so out of control it takes on a new and rather dangerous life of its own. But it was a story that deserved to be told. Memorializing and immortalizing not just a life cut short during the Holocaust, but her soul mate. If deception is good, then it’s pure.
Much like the biblical story of Jacob and Esau, Johansson brings together themes of aging, family, loss, deception, truth vs reality and, most of all, friendship. It’s refreshing she’s willing to highlight older persons and their life struggles, in turn giving top billing to mature actors who have a dearth of meaty roles to choose from.
Squibb and Rita Zohar, who plays her best friend Bessie, are exceptional. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Hecht and Erin Kellyman round out the excellent cast. Eleanor the Great hit me big time in the tissue box. I was all in. Eleanor the Great earns an 8 on the TeejFlixometer.
