June Squibb makes a great Eleanor

Promoting warmth, humanity, and understanding, Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut showcases its star as June the Great. Playing the title character of Eleanor the Great, June Squibb commands the screen like a fairy godmother waving her wand. Boasting an extensive track record of small roles in big projects, Squibb easily takes control as the center of attention in Tory Kamen’s story of a 94-year-old woman who inadvertently traps herself in a lie. Title character Eleanor means no harm, but her situation offers moral conundrums. While many sins seem more harmful than lies—murder for instance—people often react worse to hearing about others who deliberately mislead. And of course, lies often involve negative unintended consequences for others. The situation of an accidental lie opens the door for emotional whirlwinds, captured effectively in Eleanor the Great by such other cast members as Chiwetel Ejiofor, Erin Kellyman, and Rita Zohar. Director Johanson, no stranger to acting, works confidently behind the camera with her excellent cast. She shows steady guidance in a simple manner, without flash or flair. Johansson fails to escape some of the script’s unsubtle justifications that bring grief and loss into the picture, but its valid points ultimately allow the film to end on an uplifting note with a sense that a wrong or two may not make a right, but ways to work around them and move forward exist.