June Squibb continues to delight audiences as everyone's favorite senior citizen. I've loved her in Nebraska, and last summer's Thelma among many others. Eleanor the Great finds Squibb in familiar territory. Her character Eleanor Morgenstein moves from Florida to her daughter's apartment in Manhattan when her best friend and roommate dies. As in real life, Eleanor has converted to Judaism. Her best friend, Bessie, born Jewish, survives the Holocaust in Poland, telling her story over the years to her best friend and roommate. Now in her new life, Eleanor walks into the wrong group meeting, a group of Holocaust survivors. When prompted to speak, Eleanor tells her friend's story as her own and gains acceptance. The tension of that lie increases with a young journalism student, grieving her mother, attaches to Eleanor writing an article about her. The lie gets amplified as the young woman's father, a television anchorman, selects Eleanor's story for his broadcast. Eleanor the Great aims to make a statement about grief and mostly succeeds. Directed by Scarlett Johansson, the story plays straightforward and moving. Unfortunately it never resolves the central issue of Eleanor's lie. I like the quick hour and a half running time, but the rushed ending detracts from an otherwise charming story.
