Eleanor the Great review: Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut is a charming crowd-pleaser ...Middle East

With an acting career that stretches back over twenty-five years, Scarlett Johansson finally takes the plunge and makes her directorial debut with Eleanor The Great. Premiering in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival, this debut may come as a surprise to those who associate her with out-there directors like the Coen Brothers (The Man Who Wasn’t There), Jonathan Glazer (Under The Skin) or Wes Anderson (Asteroid City, and this year’s Cannes competition title The Phoenician Scheme).

Eleanor The Great is a cosy, intergenerational story of friendship starring the ever-lovely June Squibb, the 95-year-old actress who was previously in Cannes for Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, which won her an Oscar nomination. Here, she plays Eleanor, a 94-year-old Jewish mother and grandmother living in Florida, whose best friend Bessie (Rita Zohar) dies shortly after the story begins. A resident of the Bronx for 40 years back in the day, she returns to New York to live with her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht) and grandson Max (Will Price).

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On her way to a Broadway Singing get-together, she accidentally winds up in a Holocaust Survivors Group. Before she has time to think, she’s telling people she grew up in Poland (she’s from the Midwest) and lived through the Holocaust. What she’s actually doing is telling Bessie’s story. Why? It’s not clear at first, but Eleanor simply rolls with it. Then she meets Nina (Erin Kellyman), a journalism student who wants to hear her (or rather Bessie’s) history for her studies.

Gradually, the two becomes friends. Nina, who lives with her father Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a presenter on a TV news show called ‘The Fabric of New York’, is also dealing with grief. Her mother died in an accident, and clearly Roger has not been there for her, instead sinking himself into his work. Soon, stirred up by memories that aren’t even her own, Eleanor is re-investing in her Jewish faith, even having her own Bat Mitzvah.

Scripted by Tory Kamen, Eleanor The Great largely spins on the likeable chemistry between Squib and the British-born Kellyman, who has already featured in such big-scale projects as Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Willow. Still, along with a recent role in Steve McQueen’s Blitz, this is the first time she’s really had the chance to shine, and she’s more than a match for the hugely experienced Squibb.

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Some of the best moments, though, are with Squibb’s Eleanor just being herself. Like when she berates a supermarket clerk to go and find Bessie some pickles, because they’ve shopped in the same store for sixteen years and know exactly when the weekly delivery is. Or when she recounts how much her daughter used to date in high school, telling her grandson that Lisa was called “the class mattress”. Squibb proves once again what a shrewd comedienne she is.

Johansson directs in an unfussy manner, with a strong sense of place and character. The very first scene sees Eleanor in her pink rollers and turquoise dressing gown, but there is never any notion that she is mocking those in their advancing years. The actress clearly loves her characters, and gently pushes the story along, even if it’s not the most earth-shattering narrative you’ll ever see.

As a first film, it’s a solid debut, a charming crowd-pleaser that doesn’t reinvent the wheel. But underneath lies a story about loneliness and just how crucial it is to form connections and talk about even the darkest of subjects. With Biblical allusions sewn into the script, it’s easy to be taken in by Eleanor, even if she’s not quite as great as the title would have us believe.

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