Dir: Scarlett Johansson, US, 2025, 98 mins,

Cast: June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Jessica Hecht, Rita Zohar, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Review by Carol Allen

June Squibb plays the 95 year old title character in actress Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut. Squibb is very good in the role though I’d hardly describe the character as great.

Since the death of their husbands two Jewish widows, Eleanor and her best friend Bessie (Rita Zohar) have been living a comfortable life together in a retirement complex near the beach in sunny Florida. But when Bessie dies, grief stricken Eleanor moves to New York to live with her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht) and Lisa’s teenage son Max.

Eleanor is lonely and bored until the day she is invited to join a social group for Jewish elders. It turns out however that the group is specifically for Holocaust survivors to tell their stories. Eleanor spent the war years in the safety of America. Bessie however was a victim of the camps, where her beloved brother died. The only person to whom she’s told her story is Eleanor – and Eleanor, in a fit of panic, rather than leaving the group, tells Bessie’s story as though it were her own, while kidding herself she is honouring Bessie’s memory.

Things get complicated when she’s befriended by journalism student Nina (Erin Kellyman), who is doing a course project about Holocaust survivors. Nina is struggling to come to terms with the recent death of her Jewish mother, as indeed is her tv journalist father (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who has distanced himself emotionally from his daughter.

Nina’s friendship with Eleanor flourishes and nourishes her so when the truth finally comes out, landing Ejorfor with the most unlikely on air tv emotional confessional, Eleanor is in deep trouble. Though actually nothing much seems to come of it.

Squibb as the waspish but kind hearted Eleanor is very engaging. But her character and indeed some of the other characters too are somewhat unconvincing. Squibb as her daughter has a rather unrewarding and underexplored role and the same could be said of Ejiofor. Kellyman however has a far more convincing character to play and she’s very good.

The most interesting character, sadly underused is however as Bessie in the flashback sequences of her life with Eleanor and her telling of her tragic story. Unlike much of the main body of the film, the scenes of their life together are intriguing and ring totally true, making you want to know more about their friendship, which dates back to their younger days, working together in the typing pool.

Two very different women, both Jewish but with totally different backgrounds. What was it that drew them together into a lifelong friendship? That could be a story worth telling.