Film
2025 (USA), (Tragedy, Drama War)
Director: Scarlett Johansson
Starring: June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Eleanor The Great is a quietly powerful drama built on a radiant performance by June Squibb as 94-year-old Eleanor, a sharp-tongued widow who, after moving to New York, mistakenly joins a Holocaust survivors’ support group.
Loneliness and grief lead her to tell her late friend Bessie’s stories as her own, a lie that draws in a compassionate journalism student, Nina, and attracts media attention via Nina’s TV-journalist father. The deceit spirals, threatening the trust of those around her. Watch it for Squibb’s heartbreaking, nuanced portrayal and the tender central friendship between Eleanor and Nina, which anchors the film’s moral complexity. Scarlett Johnansson’s assured direction and Tory Kamen’s debut screenplay balance humor and sorrow, delivering a moving character study about truth, intention, and the consequences of a lie.
(1h34mins)