{"id":227085,"date":"2025-12-11T08:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T08:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/227085\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T08:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T08:47:11","slug":"scarlett-johanssons-directorial-debut-serves-its-fine-cast-poorly-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/227085\/","title":{"rendered":"Scarlett Johansson\u2019s directorial debut serves its fine cast poorly \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eleanor the Great<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 \ue9d7<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Director:<\/strong> Scarlett Johansson <\/p>\n

Cert:<\/strong> 12A<\/p>\n

Starring:<\/strong> June Squibb, Rita Zohar, Erin Kellyman, Jessica Hecht, Chiwetel Ejiofor <\/p>\n

Running Time:<\/strong> 1 hr 38 mins<\/p>\n

Eleanor the Great, Scarlett Johansson<\/a>\u2019s feature-directing debut, is built on a formidable foundation: June Squibb, who is now in her 90s and coming off a career high with the action-comedy Thelma<\/a>. She plays Eleanor Morgenstein, a sharp Floridian golden-ager \u2013 you\u2019d better know where those pickles are, young man. <\/p>\n

She shares a small life, a steady routine, giggly jokes, errands and people-watching by the sea with her best friend, Bessie (a tremendous Rita Zohar). The retirees\u2019 early scenes together are the best part of the movie. When Bessie dies the film shifts as Eleanor moves to New York to live with her daughter (Jessica Hecht) and grandson (Will Price). <\/p>\n

What follows is a premise that is impossible to wrangle into a pleasing shape: Eleanor accidentally joins a group for Holocaust survivors, then continues attending by passing off Bessie\u2019s real survival story as her own. <\/p>\n

From there the plot expands to include a grieving journalism student (Erin Kellyman), her newscaster father (Chiwetel Ejiofor<\/a>) and Eleanor\u2019s renewed interest in Judaism.<\/p>\n

The film frantically tries to juggle farce, family comedy and the inherited trauma of the Holocaust. The results are not as egregious as Life Is Beautiful, but too much feels unearned and wildly inappropriate.<\/p>\n

Tory Kamen\u2019s scattered, ambitious script can\u2019t justify Eleanor\u2019s impersonation. Many great stories pivot around an increasingly elaborate lie. This one doesn\u2019t hold: there is simply no compelling obstacle to Eleanor\u2019s calling a halt to the entire business. An obfuscating final act reframes the feisty heroine\u2019s deception in a framework of remembrance and forgiveness.<\/p>\n

Johansson can\u2019t solve the structural inadequacies, but she directs in a clean, fluid style that keeps the action moving. H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Louvart\u2019s sunny cinematography enlivens every frame. <\/p>\n

Squibb injects enough energy, empathy and comic timing to make Eleanor watchable even when her choices strain credibility. It\u2019s commendable that Johansson parlayed her Hollywood clout into a leading role for the charismatic nonagenarian. Unhappily, the material seldom rises to meet the calibre of its participants. <\/p>\n

In cinemas from Friday, December 12th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eleanor the Great \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 \ue9d7 Director: Scarlett Johansson Cert: 12A Starring: June Squibb, Rita Zohar,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[121982,18,117,19,17,21008],"class_list":{"0":"post-227085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-chiwetel-ejiofor","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-scarlett-johansson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115700068693209418","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}