Sometimes he entertains, sometimes he touches, but all the time, above all Thanks to the main heroine, she engages our attention. The recipe for this film was not too complicated, but there is also nothing to do about it. Not everyone must immediately experiment with the form, play with a film language or look for their own, unique voice at all costs, which was the closest of the three of these three Kristen Stewart. A simple story, properly distributed accents, interesting heroes that we want to support are also fine. And with each of these challenges Scarlett Johansson she did quite well. Although there is nothing to hide that she came across a very grateful text by another debutant of Torah Kamen.
At the center of the film we see the title Eleanor, an energetic senior who spent the last few decades of her life alongside her best friend Bessa, wearing a painful trauma. Women are everything to themselves, waking up every day and falling asleep in the same room. So when Bessie declines in health, he lands in the hospital, and soon he dies, the world Eleanor changes beyond recognition, because it seems that this void cannot be filled with anything.
The only chance for the heroine that she does not sink into regret and loneliness is to move to New York, where her daughter and teenage grandson lives. Which is probably not so obvious to each party. Once that Eleanor is difficult to find in a new place, after all, as you know, Old trees are not exaggeratingtwo that she personifies everything, why we sometimes try to mock your grandmother from Sunday dinner.
It turns out that in a relationship with Bessa, Eleanor has exhausted all her kindness, because for her loved ones, especially daughter, she is spraying, harsh, grumbling and generally she doesn’t like anything. AND positive feelings, because they exist, it hides very deeplyunder a thick layer of daily sarcasm and malice.
The success of the film Johansson in a large one rests on the shoulders, playing the role of Eleanor ninety -five years old (!) June squibb. Actresses, who we can associate even with Alexander Payne’s films – “Schmidt” or “Nebraska”. And it was a bull’s -eye for Johansson, because in giving the complexity in mourning, but at the same time trying to function on the heroines, he is excellent.
She has been partner in this story for some time Erin Kellymani.e. the screen Nina. A young student of journalism, who initially in an older woman sees mainly an attractive topic (as a result of a certain lie of the main heroine), and in the measure of the development of the situation He also sees a man. In addition, the one she would like to make friends with.
Watching “Eleanor The Great”, you can quickly feel the chemistry between the actresses, who are several dozen years oldmore than one generation. Regardless of whether it is thanks to Johansson, Squibb or Kellyman’s least experienced of them, it is nice to look at it, which largely compensates for weaker feature moments, and those in her director’s debut American actress also did not avoid.
Her film can be seen in several different ways. As A moving story about suppressed mourning, a humor story of friendship or a careful view on intergenerational dialogue. And I think that this film will work. Therefore, you can easily let go of one family dinner and plan to get out, covering grandparents, parents and children. Each of them in the debut Scarlett Johansson will find something for themselves and there is a good chance that Everyone will leave the cinema satisfied.
7/10
“Eleanor the Great”dir. Scarlett Johansson, USA 2025, premiere: International Film Festival in Cannes 2025.