“A Matter of Memoriam”
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What You Need To Know:
ELEANOR THE GREAT tells a heartfelt, funny, powerful story of grief, loss, friendship, and family. Renowned actress Scarlett Johansson does a good job directing. June Squibb delivers a wonderful performance as Eleanor. Eventually, Eleanor finds a way to share her friend’s story with the world. ELEANOR THE GREAT also has uplifting scenes of family reconciliation. However, there’s some lying and foul language, and a politically correct moment when a college-age character says she’s quote gay unquote. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.
Content:
Strong, uplifting moral worldview about grief, loss, friendship, and family, set against the backdrop of remembering the Holocaust and its victims where National Socialists from Germany rounded up Jews and other people groups to work them to death and even murder them outright, plus there’s a politically correct moment when title character’s new friend, a female college student, tells the older woman, “I’m gay,” and the title character gives a politically correct response (no other homosexual references occur after that one dialogue exchange);
Nine obscenities (including four “s” words), one GD profanity, and 10 light profanities (mostly OG or OMG);
No depicted violence, but woman tells story of how her brother died during the Holocaust in one scene;
No implied or depicted sex scenes, but college students tells her friend that she’s a lesbian;
No nudity;
No alcohol use;
No smoking or drugs; and,
Woman is pressured to tell a Holocaust story so she tells a story her friend told her and doesn’t reveal the source of the story, and she keeps lying about it until she’s finally exposed.
More Detail:
The movie begins in Florida where two elderly Jewish women, Eleanor, and her friend, Bessie, share an apartment. Bessie has nightmares of losing her brother during the Holocaust, but Eleanor has always lived in America.
One day, Bessie gets sick and goes to the hospital. The hospital releases her, but a few days later, she dies.
Grieving over her friend’s death, Eleanor, who’s 94, decides to return to New York City to live with her estranged daughter, Lisa, and her grandson, Max. Lisa makes plans for putting Eleanor in an assisted living facility. Meanwhile, she arranges for Eleanor to take singing lessons at the local Jewish center.
However, when Eleanor arrives at the Jewish center, she’s immediately befriended by another senior citizen, named Vera. Vera thinks Eleanor has come to attend her group for Holocaust survivors. She pressures Eleanor to attend the Holocaust group. Of course, since Eleanor’s new to the group, the people ask Eleanor to tell them something about herself and her Holocaust experiences. Eleanor immediately feels some pressure. So, she tells a story that Bessie once told her about being forced to ride on a train to one of the death camps.
A mixed race college journalism student named Nina is attending the group session to do a story assignment for her journalism class. Nina was also at the session because her white Jewish mother recently died. Nina’s entranced by Eleanor’s story. She befriends Eleanor, who’s surprised to learn that Nina is also the daughter of Eleanor’s favorite TV journalist in New York City. Nina is going through a tough time with her father, however, because he won’t discuss her mother’s death with Nina. He seems to be suppressing his grief.
Comically, Eleanor’s “innocent” ruse telling her friend Bessie’s Holocaust story gets out of control. When things go too far, Eleanor must confront the truth and come clean.
ELEANOR THE GREAT tells a heartfelt, funny, dramatically powerful story of grief, loss, friendship, and family reconciliation, against the backdrop of the horrors of the Holocaust. Eleanor’s friend, Bessie, lost her brother during the Holocaust, Eleanor lost her husband and her friend, Bessie, Eleanor’s daughter lost her father (Eleanor’s longtime husband), and Nina and Roger lost Nina’s mother. During a high point in the movie, Nina’s father, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, delivers a very moving TV essay on grief. Producer/Director Scarlett Johansson (and probably Scriptwriter Tory Kamen) make the brilliant decision, whenever Eleanor tells a Holocaust story from her friend, Bessie, to cut to Bessie telling the story to Eleanor. June Squibb and Rita Zohar do a great job playing Eleanor and Bessie in these and other touching scenes. Squibb also does a great job during the movie’s more humorous moments.
ELEANOR THE GREAT has some lying and foul language. Also, the college student tells Eleanor in one scene, “I’m gay,” and Eleanor gives a politically correct response. There’s no other reference to the young woman’s homosexual behavior in the movie. However, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution and parental guidance for older children.
