Erin Kellyman (Nina) and June Squibb (Eleanor Morgenstein) in 'Eleanor the Great' by Scarlett Johansson. ANNE JOYCE/SONY PICTURES
Le Monde's verdict – worth seeing
This year, Scarlett Johansson celebrated her 40th birthday. She has marked the occasion by directing her first feature film, titled Eleanor the Great. Given the level of fame, desirability, and accomplishment Johansson has achieved as an actress, it is clear something powerful drove her to take on a project where, arguably, she had more to lose than to gain. What, after all, could be expected from the perspective on the world offered by a Hollywood star, someone who, by definition, tends to have only a tenuous connection with the real world as it is rather than as it is imagined?
In all these respects, Eleanor the Great is a surprising and intelligent film. The film tells the story of Eleanor Morgenstein, a sprightly 90-year-old American woman who loses her closest friend, a Holocaust survivor with whom she lived. Devastated, Eleanor decides to leave Florida and move in with her estranged daughter and grandson. This is met with only lukewarm enthusiasm by her daughter, who is struggling with her own life and is already considering placing her mother – whose blunt personality gives her panic attacks – in an assisted living facility for independent seniors. Eleanor refuses outright.
