‘Eleanor The Great' Review: June Squibb Is Quietly Powerful And Touching As A 94-Year-Old Woman Caught Up In A Lie In Scarlett Johansson's Impressive Directorial Debut
Don't let the title fool you. Eleanor the Great is not some royal costume epic set in 1566. Instead Scarlett Johansson's wonderful and richly textured feature directorial debut is a small but beautifully realized story of a 94-year-old woman named Eleanor Morgenstern who, at the point in life where most have just given up, instead packs her bags and moves from Florida to New York City to be closer to her daughter and grandkids.
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She is played by 95-year-old June Squibb, who has done the impossible: start a whole new career in her mid-90s as a leading motion picture star. After last season's hit Thelma, in which she showed her action chops in the title role, now she finds a very different kind of title role as a woman who is determined to be on her own but caught up in a little white lie that careens out of control. The Sony Pictures Classics and TriStar Pictures release had its world premiere today in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.
Grieving after the sudden death of her roommate, Bessie (a riveting Rita Zohar), with whom she lived for 11 years, she now feels so alone in the big city despite a daughter (Jessica Hecht) looking to put her in a home. She is too independent for that and one day, looking for people to talk to, she accidentally stumbles into a Jewish Holocaust survivors group. Bessie was one of those survivors, and Eleanor had heard her devastating story of the camps and Nazis many times. Eleanor did not grow up in the Jewish religion but did convert when she married her husband, but when invited in to sit with the others, she doesn't resist the opportunity to tell Bessie's story. Only one small problem: She makes it her own, and here is where a lie can roll down the hill with no one to stop it.
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As it turns out, there is also a young student, Nina (Erin Kellyman) who is doing an article on this group for her college class and approaches Eleanor to be the highlighted survivor after hearing her (actually Bessie's) life experience. At first reluctant, the lonely Eleanor thinks perhaps Nina could be a friend, so she agrees to interview sessions.
Taking this all one step further is the fact that Nina's father, Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), happens to be a top local news anchor. After seeing his daughter's article on Eleanor, he decides to make it a featured report on the news, giving the lie even wider exposure. From this point on, it gets even more complicated.
Johansson, working with Tory Kamen's screenplay, keeps this all very delicate and a reminder of those wonderful contained New York City-set movies about the human condition, and with the expertise of her cinematographer Helene Louvart, she really captures the city. The most recent example I can think of a NYC tale like this one was Melissa McCarthy starring in Can You Ever Forgive Me? which was about a writer who started falsifying letters from famous people. That one got a few Oscar nominations, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear a lot about Eleanor the Great during awards season, especially when it comes to Squibb, whose moving performance is simply exquisite; there is no other word for it. She completely inhabits this character, and you really feel for her because all she is really doing is keeping the memory of Bessie alive, her grief over her loss so deep. It just gets out of hand.
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Zohar as Rita has a couple of scenes near the beginning but gets a stunning monologue telling her own story to Eleanor in a flashback later on. As Nina, British actress Kellyman sparkles in the role of an eager young journalist who befriends who she believes is a Holocaust survivor. Ejiofor plays her dad with reserved power, never letting his own pent-up and unresolved grief over the loss of his wife and her mother surface. In some ways he and Eleanor are both in denial and each processing their grief in ways that will have consequences.
Props to casting directors Ellen Lewis and Kate Sprance for their work here including, at Johansson's urging, the request to have actual Holocaust survivors cast as the members of the group Eleanor joins. Using Shoah Foundation recommendations, they did just that, and it gives this lovely movie even more of a sense of authenticity. There won't be a dry eye in the house for this one.
Producers are Jessamine Burgum, Kara Durrett,Trudie Styler, Celine Rattray, Johansson, Jonathan Lia, Keenan Flynn
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Title: Eleanor the GreatFestival: Cannes (Un Certain Regard)Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics (in association with TriStar Pictures)Director: Scarlett JohanssonScreenwriter: Tory KamenCast: June Squibb, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rita Zohar, Erin Kellyman, Jessica HechtRunning time: 1 hr 38 min
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