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Eleanor the Great review – June Squibb takes on Holocaust survivor trauma in Scarlett Johansson’s iffy directing debut

The 95-year-old actor gives an enjoyably twinkly performance in a film that misjudges how seriously its story should be takenScarlett Johansson’s directorial feature debut, from a screenplay by Tory Kamen, is honestly intentioned and sweetly acted – notably by the film’s 95-year-old star June Squibb, whose remarkable career renaissance began with her being nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for Alexander Payne’s 2013 film Nebraska. But this frankly odd film is misjudged and naive about the implications of its Holocaust theme. Its bland, TV-movie tone of sentimentality fails to accommodate the existential nightmare of the main plot strand, or indeed the subordinate question of when and whether to put your elderly parent in a care home.Squibb plays Eleanor Morgenstein, a widowed Jewish lady with a waspish way of speaking her mind to condescending youngsters, including the blandly unhelpful teen working in a supermarket who presumes to tell Eleanor that all pickles taste pre...


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