TIFF 2025 Review: Eleanor The Great – “June Squibb is a treasure.”

Courtesy of TIFF

June Squibb is a treasure.  When she got her first leading role at the age of 93 for 2024’s Thelma, I fell hard for her charming performance.  Side bar, if you haven’t seen that film, treat yourself to one of the best 2024 had to offer; it’s delightful.  So when I heard that Squibb had a film at TIFF this year, I couldn’t help but get excited.  Eleanor the Great was not a disappointment, largely due to her presence.

“She’s going to live forever,” says Eleanor’s grandson, Max (Will Price), to his mother, Lisa (Jessica Hecht).  And indeed, she seems to have the verve and spirit that could make this prediction come true.  Eleanor has just moved back to New York City after 40 years to live with her daughter.  Previous to this, she had lived for over a decade in Florida with her best friend since the 1950s, Bessie (Rita Zohar).  The two were inseparable.  They went for morning walks, counted their pills, and went grocery shopping happily together.  So when Bessie suddenly passes, Eleanor is left with an immense sense of loneliness, one that isn’t filled by Max, who is busy with his school friends, or Lisa who is always at work.

She finds a sense of belonging in a support group for Holocaust survivors that she accidentally ends up attending at the local Jewish Community Centre.  Yet the stories she has to share are not her own.  They are Bessie’s.  From their years of living together, Eleanor helped her friend through night terrors and memories of that horrific time, listening to her recount her life.  She remembers every detail and imparts that to the group, getting the attention of Nina (Erin Kellyman), a journalism student attending the group for a project and trying to impress her news anchor dad (Chiwetel Ejiofor).  Intrigued by her story, Nina starts off interviewing Eleanor, but the two strike up an unlikely friendship and it’s just the void Eleanor is looking to fill.  Yet, it’s all based on a lie that snowballs and threatens to ruin the relationships that Eleanor has built.

Eleanor the Great is the directorial debut from Scarlett Johansson, which has to strike a delicate balance.  Eleanor’s actions are decidedly questionable, and she keeps doubling down on lies, yet Squibb plays her with such charisma that you can’t help but feel for her throughout the film.  It’s essential for this to work.  Because this is somewhat weighty material despite the tone of the movie.  Johansson gives Squibb room to work, and as Eleanor, she is strong and sassy, the type of woman I hope to be in my golden years.  Yet, behind that, there is the complexity of grief Eleanor is still working through and uncertainty for her future.  It’s all a lot for any human, and so it makes our protagonist relatable.

The film also brings into question the importance of stories, of personal history.  Whose are they to tell? As so many of our Holocaust survivors are now in their senior years, who will be there to make sure their stories aren’t lost, that history remembers?  As I watched the end of this film through tears (as much of the audience did), I was left with this question, and the hope that we will continue to remember and treat each personal encounter with grace.  I feel the film did that here.  Eleanor never used Bessie’s story with ill intent, she did it to fill a void, to remember her friend and to connect.  In fact, Bessie herself wondered who would remember her brother when she was gone, now others know what their family went through.  The film never fully excuses the lie, but uses it to explore Eleanor’s grief, if superficially.

Johansson isn’t breaking new ground with this film, but with Squibb aboard, she competently steers the ship away from being overly melodramatic and instead makes something that comes out feeling meaningful.  Eleanor the Great is sure to get laughs and tears from its audience, and with the incomparable June Squibb you can forgive some of the film’s squabbles.  At 95 years of age, June and Eleanor prove that it’s never too late to let loose, make new connections, and discover a new side of yourself.

Eleanor the Great had its North American premiere Monday, September 8th at the Toronto International Film Festival.  For more information, head to tiff.net