With “The Chronology of Water”, Kristen Stewart's directorial debut (“3 angels for Charlie”) celebrated its world premiere at the film festival in Cannes. The actress had fought for the project for eight years and finally even announced that she was not taking any other roles until she filmed Lidia Yuknavitch's book of the same name. This use can be seen from the result: a raw, angry, honest, poetic, overwhelming and fragile film, which is certainly not suitable for everyone due to its uncompromising. On Tuesday afternoon, another Hollywood superstar followed, this time by McU-Black-Widow Scarlett Johansson, who will be registered with her role in “Jurassic World: The Return” in a few weeks in the next mega franchise.
Also “Eleanor the Great“It was stuck in development for eight years – but before Johansson, who brought her good connections into the industry to finally bring the financing in dry towels. Now I don't want to say that Johansson has put himself in a nest – that director is only then in development for a project. But it is very clear that it is very clear to the project. Changed title – also sanded the last corners and edges. “Eleanor the Great”, on the other hand, is a security surcharge, as he is in the book – somehow in the field, the main thing is that he goes into the field.
Now 95 and still not a bit quiet: June Squibb rocks again this time!
Eleanor (June Squibb) and Bessie (Rita Zohar) have been the best friends for 70 years, they even lived together for the past eleven years. But now Bess is dead and Eleanor moves from Florida to her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht) and her grandson Max (Will Price) to Manhattan. Not only the weather is worse here, Eleanor doesn't even know what to do the lovely long day in the impersonal Big Apple. That is why Lisa sends her mother to the Jewish community center, where she should sing along in the choir-but Eleanor confuses the room and is therefore unexpectedly found in a self-help group for Holocaust survivors.
After trying to escape the situation at first, she tells about which horror she experienced at the time and how her brother was murdered. The only problem is: Eleanor has never experienced the Holocaust – it was born in the middle west and only accepted the Jewish faith in 1953. But as if that weren't bad enough, the journalism student Nina (Erin Kellyman) also plans a report on “her” story-and Nina's father, a famous TV newspaper spokesman (Chiwetel EjioFor), also signals interest …
Middle finger in the synagogue
June Squibb, born in 1929, has been working as an actress since 1950 and has been on TV and in the cinema since 1985. In 2002 she embodied the late wife of Jack Nicholson in “About Schmidt”, in 2013 she was nominated for her performance in “Nebraska” (also by Alexander Payne) for the Oscar as the best supporting actress. Her trademark: a dry, cheeky, mess of age, but still charming humor, which reminds a bit of the fearless Betty White and convinced Adam Sandler from filling her in “Hubie Halloween”, where she constantly wears T-shirts with inscriptions, which you would like to buy afterwards. And yet it took until 2024 before June Squibb got her first cinema role at the age of 94 (!) Years:
In “Thelma – revenge was never sweet” she embodies a senior woman who loses all her money to a tricky fraud and now wants to get back, it costs what it wants. You can describe the estate as a “Fast & Furious” for the Ü90 generation-just with an electrical mobility scooter instead of high-fitting muscle car. But while fabric and humor fit together perfectly in “Thelma”, Squibb in “Eleanor the Great” is really left out of the leash only at the beginning – for example, if they turned a poor supermarket assistant into a snail because he dared to say that all of the pickled cucumbers tasted the same and he does not have to get the kosher out of the warehouse. Even in the synagogue, Squibb is allowed to show the middle finger when she is hissed for calm.
Great instead of invisible
But that's it. Unlike the “A Real Pain” for the best script, which also endured the tragic comedy of ambivalence as a Holocaust, “Eleanor the Great” comes too toothless: Immediately after we have seen Eleanor in the group for the first time, there is immediately a flashback that is resolving that the “decayed” Holocaust story is in truth. Eleanor just wants to make sure that her best friend's experiences are not forgotten. This is probably also why the film is now called “Eleanor the Great” instead of “Eleananor, Invisible”: It shouldn't even be in the room for a moment that Eleanor actually does something.
The other entanglements of moral insiders, woods, also appear lifeless – especially the chiwetel ejio -fornominated for his role in “12 years a slave” Oscarnominated, as news anchor, never looks like a person of flesh and blood, but only like a schematic means to an end. And yet, like most in the cinema hall, we ended up tearing a tear-because even if directing and script disappoint, there is no way to get past the power house performance of the now 95-year-old June Squibb …
Conclusion: Scarlett Johansson just doesn't want to go wrong with her directorial debut – and that is exactly the mistake. Despite its provocative premise and great June Squibb, “Eleanor the Great” is developing into a cumbersome, moral ins acid tragic comedy.
We saw “Eleanor the Great” at the Cannes Film Festival 2025, where he celebrated his world premiere in the UN Certain Regard section.