Eleanor the Great
Tory Kamen’s screenplay for “Eleanor the Great” hinges on an idea that feels like a profound detriment towards its main character, that it’s hard to imagine why we would support her after that. But the choice Eleanor, played by the great June Squibb, makes in that key moment in Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut isn’t one we feel is done out of maliciousness. How do we reconcile the choices she makes afterwards? That is the conundrum at the heart of the film.
Eleanor is a retiree who spends her days with her best friend, and roommate, Bessie (Rita Zohar). One day, Bessie dies, and Eleanor moves to New York to live with her daughter, Lisa (Jessica Hecht). She converted to Judaism after getting married in 1953, and she decides to try and get involved with activities in the local synagogue. She then finds herself taken to a support group, which is where she meets Nina (Erin Kellyman), a young journalism student sitting in. This isn’t a regular support group, however- it’s for Holocaust survivors. She has a story to tell, but it’s not hers- it’s Bessie’s. And Nina is riveted, and the two become friends.
With the way it plays out, we do not feel like Eleanor is doing this out of malicious intent, but she doesn’t necessarily put the breaks on it as Nina tries to put her story out there more. For Eleanor, it feels like a connection she’s been missing since Bessie died, and it is Bessie’s story that connects the two. With her daughter, it’s family tensions as Lisa wants one thing for her, but she wants to live life like she was. There’s an added kinship with Nina, however; Nina lost her mother about a year ago, and with her reporter father (Chiwetel Ejiofor), she hasn’t found an ability to connect in their shared loss. With Eleanor, she does.
Johansson’s work with her actors is quite good in this film. Squibb continues to deliver fine performances as strong-willed seniors who are not ready to just let life pass her by as she waits to die. Since first seeing her in “Solo,” I’ve wanted to see more from Kellyman, and she delivers here as a young woman who finds- in Eleanor- a woman she can connect with after the death of her mother; the two are a wonderful pair. While the film’s climax tries to tie a bow on the ethically-complicated narrative we watched up to it- and, with a few moments here or there, it would have made sense to go there- one can’t help but feel like “Eleanor the Great” is missing some bits of narrative glue to avoid making its main character less guilty of a terrible thing as she is. The terrific performances can only go so far in glossing over that. I enjoyed the film, but because of its central idea, not as much as I should have. I did have a good cry by the end, though.
