2024 was a good year for June Squibb. She starred in her first leading role at 94 in Thelma, to critical love and acclaim. She is now following up that success with Eleanor the Great, which is also mega-star Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut. This film is riding on a lot of prestige and name recognition, and so far, its marketing has chosen to focus on that rather than the sensitive and morally complicated story that lies underneath.
When we first meet the titular Eleanor Morgenstein (Squibb), she is living in Florida with her best friend, Bessie (Rita Zohar). Both of their husbands died years ago, and so the two former New Yorkers moved to Florida to live out what most best friends dream about. They spend all their time together, carrying out the same routine: wake up in the same room, work out by the beach, go shopping. They practically live the same life, except Bessie is a Holocaust survivor and is haunted by her time in a concentration camp.
When Bessie dies and Eleanor is forced to move back to New York with her recently divorced daughter (Jessica Hecht) and her grandson, her prickly attitude starts to come through. She is short with those around her, her tolerance and patience for others low. When her daughter forces her to attend a class at her local Jewish Community Center, she accidentally gets lumped into a Holocaust support group. Instead of leaving, she uses Bessie’s story as her own. The moving tale catches the attention of Nina (Erin Kellyman), a college student grieving the loss of her mother and suffering from an emotionally strained relationship with her father (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Lonely and bored, Eleanor decides to continue the charade upon Nina’s insistence to use her for her journalism class. As the lie gets bigger, Eleanor struggles to figure out her next move.
Eleanor is a tricky and morally compromised role. It’s not very often we see unlikable women as main characters, let alone elderly ones. You’re mileage may vary with Squibb’s performance, as there are moments where she feels miscast. I believe that is because of the tonal unevenness of first-time screenwriter Tory Kamen’s script rather than the veteran actress. Squibb shines in other moments, bringing out a prickly honesty and mischievousness that you can’t help but watch.
Besides one clever scene featuring Stephen Sondheim’s “I’m Still Here,” Johannson’s direction feels pretty standard. She seems to just point the camera at who is talking, not really elevating the story beyond that. The performance she is able to pull out of Kellyman, though, is brilliant. Clearly, she understands what it means to be a young actress trying to prove herself. But I struggle to see what Johannson wants to say here and what drew her to this story in the first place.
The premise of Eleanor the Great is a hard needle to thread in our current moment. Kamen struggles to weave in the film’s larger themes into its ending with any nuance and satisfaction. While there are a lot of great ideas here and a stellar performance from Erin Kellyman, multiple parts of this film are just out of sync enough that it doesn’t fully work as a whole.
