ELEANOR THE GREAT (2025)

After a devastating loss, a witty and proudly troublesome 94-year-old tells a tale that takes on its own dangerous life.

by Amelia Harvey 13th December 202513th December 2025 Leave a reply

Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, is a sweet yet predictable tale about how one old lady’s seemingly harmless lie snowballs. Eleanor (June Squibb) is a grumpy yet witty New Yorker living in Florida with her best friend, Bessie (Rita Zohar). They do everything together and share everything with each other, so Eleanor is at a loss when Bessie passes away.

After Bessie’s death, Eleanor is forced to move in with her busy, divorced daughter (Jessica Hecht) and teenage grandson (Will Price). Lonely and grieving her oldest friend, the widowed Eleanor struggles to adjust to life back in the big city. To try to keep her mother amused and help her make friends, Eleanor’s daughter enrols her in meetings at the local community centre. Eleanor soon wanders into a group for people who have survived the Holocaust. She tells a moving story about her youth, but the only problem is… it’s not her story, it’s Bessie’s.

Eleanor the Great initially appears to be a twee story of an elderly lady navigating the world after loss. The film, written by Tony Kamen, understands that the loss of a friendship can be as painful and isolating as the loss of a romantic partner. However, the script soon evolves into something a little darker as Eleanor starts to pretend that she’s a Holocaust survivor.

When she’s mistaken for a Holocaust survivor and ends up in the wrong community group, she doesn’t correct them. Enjoying the attention and camaraderie, Eleanor recounts Bessie’s life as if it were her own. Suddenly, she matters, and people want to listen to her. She has not felt so valued since Bessie passed away. The film intends to say less about who Eleanor is, and more about how society pushes aside the elderly and struggles to find time for them.

She catches the eye of a young journalism student, Nina (Erin Kellyman), who is struggling with her own loss. Nina’s mother has recently passed, and she’s struggling to connect with her famous TV journalist father (an underused Chiwetel Ejiofor). Nina and Eleanor find themselves forming an unlikely friendship as both work through their grief and loneliness.

Eleanor loves spending time with Nina, someone who listens to her and respects her—something she does not get from her own family members. Because she loves the company, she keeps up the lie until she becomes trapped in her own deception. It all gets out of hand when Nina starts to write about Eleanor’s childhood, and the story escapes the confines of their little New York group.

Eleanor the Great hits all the predictable and expected tropes of the inter-generational friendship story. Yet, this dark lie adds an extra layer to the film, giving it a little more intrigue than many of the others in the genre. The grit is much needed, turning this episode of The Golden Girls into something more poignant.

The film would be nowhere near as successful without June Squibb’s performance as Eleanor. She’s not necessarily a bad person, nor is she a sweet old lady; she’s a tough nonagenarian with a sharp tongue and a lack of filter. She’s the type of older lady many of us know and secretly love. 96-year-old Squibb plays Eleanor full of life and energy, and Johansson shoots her up close so the audience can see the glint in the actress’s eye. It’s a deep shame that Squibb only reached leading lady status in the twilight of her career (her first leading role was in 2024’s Thelma) because she’s an utter joy to watch on-screen.

Eleanor the Great knows how to utilise Squibb’s naturally mischievous nature. Squibb’s sparkle also stops Eleanor’s lie from coming across as too nefarious. Sometimes her adorable crotchetiness does take away from the character’s inner turmoil, but this film does not have enough time to deal with the complicated emotions that come with the situation Eleanor finds herself in.

Kellyman more than holds her own against Squibb. Eleanor tries to put up her normal tough act against Nina, but she sees straight through it because she has been putting on the same act for years. Kellyman’s Nina is a believable companion to Eleanor: grief has made her wise beyond her years, while it has made Eleanor a little more immature. Sadly, Nina and her side of the relationship are side characters to Eleanor. The film may have benefited from fleshing out Nina’s relationship with her father and her recently deceased mother, as it would have helped deliver another emotional wallop in the final act.

Despite her limited screen time, Bessie is the heart and soul of Eleanor the Great. She appears in flashbacks throughout the film, recounting her harrowing Polish upbringing in World War II. The perhaps morally questionable ethics of the film are softened by Rita Zohar’s haunting performance, powerfully telling stories during sleepless nights. Eleanor’s behaviour is less a cruel way of attention-seeking and more a tribute to her friend’s untold story.

Towards the final act, Eleanor the Great struggles to balance the tone. Half light-hearted intergenerational buddy comedy, half a tragic memory of the scars still worn by those growing up in World War II, the writing does not always manage the almost-impossible task of interweaving the two. Still, the screenplay does a better job than many others would with the balancing act.

Eleanor the Great doesn’t do anything unexpected, nor will it go in any shocking direction, once the moral quandary is revealed. The film takes a story with tricky ethics and an unsympathetic leading character and turns it into a warming tale about friendship and grief. While it fails to mine the emotional depths of exploring Eleanor’s guilt at lying, it’s a sweet tale about loneliness and intergenerational trauma bonding.

Some may argue that Eleanor the Great minimises one of humanity’s darkest moments, while others will see the intended meaning of Kamen’s film. Still, it’s a heart-warming and often emotional film about the power of story, and how people can live on through story (even if it’s not told first-hand).

USA | 2025 | 98 MINUTES | 1.85:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH YIDDISH