Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Scarlett Johansson
Starring: June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Jessica Hecht, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rita Zohar
In Jurek Becker's WWII-set 1969 novel 'Jacob the Liar', Jacob, a resident of Warsaw's Jewish ghetto, overhears a radio report detailing the approach of the Russian army towards Poland. Seeing the hope this news gives to his fellow desperate ghetto-dwellers, Jacob begins inventing news reports, convincing his neighbours that the Red Army's tanks are set to roll through the streets of Warsaw any day now and free its people from German occupation. Inspired by the biblical fable of Jacob and Esau, Becker's novel asks the question of whether a lie can be excused if it serves a good purpose.
Likely inspired by Becker's novel, or perhaps by one of its cinematic adaptations (an Oscar-nominated 1975 East German production and a mawkish Robin Williams vehicle from 1999), Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut Eleanor the Great poses the same question. It too deals with the Holocaust, though it is set in the present day.
American national treasure June Squibb plays Eleanor Morgenstein, a 94-year-old Jewish woman who lives with her best friend Bessie (Rita Zohar) in Florida. When Bessie passes away, Eleanor relocates to New York where she is taken in by her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht). Busy with her career, Lisa has little time to spend with her mother and so she signs Eleanor up to a group in the local Jewish community centre. When Eleanor arrives at the centre she mistakenly finds herself in a Holocaust survivors' group. Asked to speak of her experiences, Eleanor tells a moving tale of survival in occupied Poland.
Trouble is, it's not Eleanor's story but Bessie's - Eleanor was born in Iowa, not Poland. But her story convinces the listeners, including Nina (Erin Kellyman), a teenage journalism student who is writing a piece on Holocaust survivors. Nina latches onto Eleanor, and the two quickly become friends. Having recently lost her Jewish mother, Nina has struggled to process her grief, and her news anchor father (Chiwetel Ejiofor) has retreated into himself, unable to discuss their shared loss. In Eleanor and her story, Nina finds the comfort she's been searching for, and Eleanor finds a friend in Nina. But Eleanor is caught in a lie, one which escalates and threatens to ruin her friendship with Nina.
There's always something touching in the depiction of a friendship between two characters at the opposite ends of their lives, and Eleanor the Great is no different. Squibb and Kellyman have a heartwarming chemistry, and their shared scenes convince us that we're watching two very different people becoming good friends. That we buy into their relationship goes a long way to making us worry about how things might go when the truth inevitably comes out and Eleanor's deception is exposed.
The implications of that deception are unfortunately never explored in a sufficiently profound manner. The film asks us to worry about Eleanor and Nina's friendship, but it displays no interest in how Eleanor's lies will affect the members of the survivors' group. In flashbacks we witness Bessie tell her story to Eleanor, and thanks to an impassioned and moving performance by Zohar, we feel the full weight and importance of this story being told, even if just to one person. Like Becker's novel, Johansson's film argues that this is a lie that can be excused. But the only people who can truly excuse it aren't given a voice here. The film is bizarrely missing a crucial scene in which Eleanor is confronted by the actual survivors, rather than simply implying that they're willing to forgive her.
As a comedy, Eleanor the Great is never as black and biting as its premise would suggest. I couldn't help but compare it to an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Larry David finds himself in the similar position of having spun a fake story in a sexual abuse survivors' group. David is able to take what is a reprehensible act and mines it for laughs, chiefly because he recognises the fictional version of himself is a borderline sociopath. Eleanor the Great is too invested in making us warm to its titular fibber, and so it sands off any sharp edges.
Johansson's direction doesn't exactly suggest her talents lie behind, rather than in front of the camera, but she displays an economical touch, with Bessie's passing nicely conveyed in a simple cut to Eleanor sitting alone on the park bench on which we previously saw the pair of friends perched. She has the good sense to let her impressive cast carry the film, though the usually great Ejiofor seems uncomfortable in an under-developed and unconvincing role that leads to a sentimental monologue that comes off as insincere and rehearsed. As someone with Holocaust victims in her bloodline, this is clearly a subject that means a great deal to Johansson, but its uncomfortable theme may have benefitted from being explored by someone with less emotional investment.
Eleanor the Great is in UK/ROI cinemas from December 12th.
