“Eleanor the Great” Needs to Live in its Discomfort
Last year, then-ninety-four-year-old June Squibb had her first leading actor role. It was in Thelma. She’s shown no signs of slowing down as, a mere year later, Squibb has a second leading role under her belt in Eleanor the Great. This newest film also marks Scarlett Johansson’s narrative feature directorial debut. These new experiences for Squibb and Johansson prove that learning a new skill and breaking out of your comfort zone is a forever experience. That alone is worth celebrating.
For seventy years, Eleanor (Squibb) has been best friends with Bessie (Rita Zohar). The two live in Florida and do just about everything together. Their lives are wholly intertwined, sharing a bedroom, making meals for each other, and relishing the knowledge that they have each other. When Bessie unexpectedly passes away, Eleanor moves back to New York City to live with her daughter (Jessica Hecht). Adrift, lonely, and missing her best friend, Eleanor strikes up a friendship with a college girl, Nina (Erin Kellyman). The two begin to spend hours with each other, connecting despite their massive age gap, but this newfound friendship, unbeknownst to Nina, was built on a lie that threatens to ruin the life Eleanor is building in New York.
courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Eleanor the Great opens with a beautiful, essentially wordless dance between Eleanor and Bessie. They wake up and begin their day together like they have for decades, and they have this choreographed dance that comes from repetition and routine. Something that is born out of knowing someone in an intimate, familiar manner. There’s a gentleness to the relationship between Eleanor and Bessie. They’ve led full, sprawling lives, but now they find the most excitement in being around each other. Eleanor is there when Bessie’s PTSD from surviving the Holocaust keeps her from sleeping, and Bessie is there to remind Eleanor that she doesn’t have to tell tall tales to be interesting.
The lie that’s the foundation of the relationship between Eleanor and Nina will likely ruffle some feathers. It’s the sort of lie that many people would have trouble overlooking, which is the inherent problem of Eleanor the Great. Nina’s lie is not small, and it snowballs out of control, but we don’t really get the sense that Eleanor regrets her choice or that she’s grappling with what she’s done. When she’s caught in the lie, she sinks into a deep depression, but then everything is neatly solved a scene-and-a-half later. There’s a fascinating story here that’s hidden under a neat pleasantness that never allows the film to get ugly. Eleanor the Great is inherently messy. A script built on a lie of this caliber has to be comfortable in the uncomfortable.
courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Eleanor the Great is a piece of cinema interested in the idea of life stories, how we ensure they live on, and the role of the storyteller. All of these are compelling questions that drive the film, but don’t end up being explored in a meaningful way. What starts as an extremely earnest look at a friendship that has endured seven decades gets lost in a lofty lie. Eleanor the Great didn’t need the trappings of an out-of-control fib because the pulse of the film is loneliness. The way we all seek connection because no one wants to go through this life alone. Nina and Eleanor become the perfect Odd Couple. Two people who have recently experienced a deep and profound loss find something healing in the other person. That’s all a film needs when it has lead actors as compelling as Squibb and Kellyman, who play perfectly off each other. Eleanor the Great is a film about connection, but one whose wires get a little too crossed.
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