Eleanor the Great review – June Squibb takes on Holocaust survivor trauma in Scarlett Johansson’s iffy directing debut

The 95-year-old actor gives an enjoyably twinkly performance in a film that misjudges how seriously its story should be takenScarlett Johansson’s directorial feature debut, from a screenplay by Tory Kamen, is honestly intentioned and sweetly acted – notably by the film’s 95-year-old star June Squibb, whose remarkable career renaissance began with her being nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for Alexander Payne’s 2013 film Nebraska. But this frankly odd film is misjudged and naive about the implications of its Holocaust theme. Its bland, TV-movie tone of sentimentality fails to accommodate the existential nightmare of the main plot strand, or indeed the subordinate question of when and whether to put your elderly parent in a care home.Squibb plays Eleanor Morgenstein, a widowed Jewish lady with a waspish way of speaking her mind to condescending youngsters, including the blandly unhelpful teen working in a supermarket who presumes to tell Eleanor that all pickles taste pretty much the same – although it is difficult to tell exactly how mean twinkly-eyed lovable Eleanor is supposed to be for humiliating the admittedly dopey kid. She lives in Florida, sharing an apartment with her adored best friend Bessie Stern (Rita Zohar). Bessie is also widowed and Jewish, but unlike the US-born Eleanor, Bessie is a Holocaust survivor who is tormented by the horrifying experience, by the memory of her beloved brother who did not survive, and also by the fact that she has never experienced even the partial catharsis of telling her story publicly, having only told Eleanor. Continue reading...

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