Movie Review
Senior actress June Squibb gets star turn in Eleanor the Great
June Squibb in Eleanor the Great.
One of the more remarkable stories in recent movie history is the very late rise of actor June Squibb. Although not an unknown, having appeared in supporting roles in the 1990s and 2000s, Squibb became a sensation after earning an Oscar nomination for her role in Nebraska in 2013 at the age of 84. She has remained in demand ever since, even playing the lead role in Thelma in 2024 and now Eleanor the Great.
Eleanor (Squibb) is a long-retired woman living in Florida with her best friend, Bessie (Rita Zohar). When Bessie dies, Eleanor’s daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht) insists she move back to New York to be closer to her family. With no other connections, Eleanor takes Lisa’s suggestion to go to her local Jewish community center to see if she can make some friends there.
Eleanor inadvertently gets pulled into a Holocaust survivor group, where everyone there assumes she shares their history. Out of embarrassment and a love for Bessie, who was a Holocaust survivor, Eleanor starts sharing Bessie’s stories as if they were her own. Nina (Erin Kellyman), an NYU student, happens to be at the meeting and takes a shine to Eleanor. Soon, the two of them are spending lots of time together, with Nina hoping to use Eleanor’s stories for a piece she’s writing for her journalism class.
Scarlett Johansson, making her directing debut, and writer Tory Kamen give Squibb a light-yet-dramatic showcase that plays directly to her strengths. Many films that focus on elderly characters use their age as a joke, pointing out how they don’t mesh well with modern times. The filmmakers mostly eschew that kind of storytelling, instead allowing Eleanor to be a full human being who gets caught up in a lie that she can’t seem to shake.
They also make the wise decision to give Eleanor a compelling foil in Nina, who’s dealing with her own trauma following the recent death of her mother. The grief that Nina and her father, Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), are experiencing adds a dimension to the story that that expands its emotional depth. Eleanor and Nina’s growing friendship is portrayed so believably that the inevitable reveal of Eleanor’s deception grows more heartbreaking by the minute.
Johansson has a few minor missteps in her first attempt as a feature filmmaker, but overall she demonstrates an ability to juggle a variety of characters and situations without losing the thread of the plot. The story is a familiar one that’s been done in different ways before, but Johansson and her team keep it engaging throughout despite its predictable beats.
Squibb, who is 95 years old (!!), is yet again a wonder in the role. While her and her character’s age are a big part of the story, that fact never overshadows her acting ability. She’s able to find nuances that make Eleanor into a large presence, proving she is a star through and through. The rest of the cast is also great, especially Kellyman and Ejiofor, who inhabit their storyline well without taking away from the main plot.
There are not many actors who still have the ability to carry an entire movie on their back in their nineties, but Squibb is a delightful exception. The fact that Eleanor the Great is not some disposable trifle makes her continued late-career renaissance all the more impressive, and even more reason to respect her and everyone involved in the film.
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Eleanor the Great is now playing in theaters.
