Scarlett Johansson’s feature directorial debut Eleanor the Great is the definition of “good enough,” but it also boasts an impressive leading performance from everyone’s favourite nonagenarian, June Squibb, that makes the whole thing just that much better. A solid, safe, and stable bit of middlebrow entertainment, Eleanor the Great wants to tell a tale of friendship, aging, and little white lies in as effective a way as possible. And it works. Johansson has a great eye for visuals and heeds the instincts of her performers, but Eleanor the Great isn’t much more than a simple piece of entertainment with just enough good elements to recommend it.
Elderly Eleanor Morgenstein (Squibb) has been living with her best friend, Bessie (Rita Zohar), at a shared house in Florida since the death of her husband. Born in Iowa, but a proud resident of The Bronx for forty years, Eleanor hasn’t lost any of her quick witted, sarcastic New York attitude, and old age certainly hasn’t slowed her down. But when Bessie suddenly passes away, Eleanor is forced to move back to Manhattan with her daughter (Jessica Hecht) and university age grandson (Will Price). Alone and suspicious that her daughter wants to put her in a home, Eleanor reluctantly tries to get out to the local Jewish community centre to keep busy. But instead of attending the choir rehearsals suggested by her daughter, Eleanor stumbles into a support group for Holocaust survivors. A proud Jew, Eleanor has always had big feelings about the Holocaust, despite never having lived through it in Europe. But something compels Eleanor to tell a story of survival in that meeting. The story catches the ear and heart of Nina (Erin Kellyman), a journalism student and the daughter of Eleanor and Bessie’s favourite newscaster (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Nina, who recently lost her mother, wants to do a piece about Eleanor’s life, not knowing that the old woman has actually been sharing the story of her late best friend’s traumas.
In addition to being Johansson’s first feature behind the camera, Eleanor the Great is the first produced screenplay from writer Tory Kamen, with both delivering a simple, well told story that takes few missteps. One’s enjoyment of Eleanor the Great and its ultralight approach comes down to how tasteless one finds the titular character’s deceptions. Eleanor’s story is respectfully told and clearly in honour of someone who meant a lot to her, but it’s also stringing people along so she can feel wanted and less alone. Eleanor isn’t a bad person, but if the truth were to come to light, she will be offending some people and letting others down. None of this is presented in a challenging or hard hitting manner, with Johansson and Kamen preferring to take the easy road of presenting all of this as a white lie that everyone could move on from quite easily over time. Again, it comes down to how bad one thinks the lie really is, and the film treats the stakes as being resolutely low.
Eleanor the Great never gets too bogged down in cliches about growing older, which is a positive for most films that place a senior citizen front and centre. Johansson makes it known that Eleanor is a product of her environment – tough talking, overly blunt, but with a good heart – without much dulling of the wit and vigour the character likely had when she was younger. Similarly, and in spite of an unchallenging take on Eleanor’s misappropriation of facts, the film still offers a touching and comforting take on confronting and accepting loss, not just in a large scale tragedy like the Holocaust, but in everyday life. The film nicely treats the loss of every life as something that comes with grief that is unique to the person experiencing it. Loss brings us all together in some way, but grief is handled as being something unique.
But when it comes to the film’s more comedic and lighthearted level, the script disappointingly forgets to give Eleanor anyone interesting to verbally spar with. Eleanor gets all the good material and zingers, while everyone around her is completely subservient and bland by comparison. Squibb is at the top of her game throughout Eleanor the Great, but it’s always as if Johansson reveres the character so much that the director is afraid to challenge her leading lady in the performance department. Not that Squibb needs the challenge. She carries the film on her back throughout and leaves a major impression. But without any game sparring partners, Eleanor the Great lacks the kind of dramatic and comedic tension that could take the film to another level.
The expected reveal of Eleanor’s lies comes from what feels like the wrong source, somewhat souring any kind of redemption arc that could follow, but even that isn’t enough to fully derail Johansson’s capable debut. It’s kind, has a good heart, makes Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs look picture perfect, and Squibb adds yet another great performance to a career full of laudable character work. And yet, it’s not much more than what it appears to be on the tin. If that’s what you want. that’s what you’re going to get.
Eleanor the Great opens in theatres across Canada, including TIFF Lightbox in Toronto, on Friday, September 26, 2025. It screened as part of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
