Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut, Eleanor The Great, has premiered to mixed reviews at Cannes film festival.
The Marvel star’s film was shown at the annual film event on Tuesday (20 May), receiving a five-minute standing ovation and prompting tears from audience members.
The film stars June Squibb as 94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein, a widowed Jewish lady who joins a Jewish seniors social group to overcome loneliness, before discovering that the group is specifically for Holocaust survivors.
Hoping to find companionship, Eleanor pretends to be a survivor by sharing her late friend Bessie’s (Rita Zohar) devastating story about her family's experience during the Holocaust as if it were her own – until her lie is given a public platform.
The film has received mixed reviews from critics, with some praising it for being tear-inducing and funny, while others have branded it as “odd” and “wobbly”.
The most positive review came from The Times’ Ed Potton, who gave the film four stars and praised it for having the “jackpot combination of being tear-inducing and laugh-out-loud funny”.
“This is personal stuff for Johansson, who is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust. Believed to be the highest-grossing actress in history, thanks largely to the Marvel movies, she has the power to make the films she wants to, and has learnt from some of the best directors in the business,” wrote Potton, adding: “Eleanor is humane, direct and unbothered by what others think, and Squibb has a ball with Tory Kamen’s witty script.”
Deadline’s Pete Hammond praised Johansson’s “wonderful and richly textured” debut and predicted it would generate buzz at awards season.
“There won't be a dry eye in the house for this one,” Hammond wrote. “I wouldn’t be surprised to hear a lot about Eleanor the Great during awards season, especially when it comes to Squibb, whose moving performance is simply exquisite; there is no other word for it.”
However, in a two-star review of the film, The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw wrote that the “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,” Bradshaw added.
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman called the film “unconvincing”, writing: “There’s no denying that as a character, Eleanor plays, giving Squibb an opportunity to strut her granny-with-an-attitude stuff. But you’re always aware that the movie is trying to squeeze a laugh out of you.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Lovia Gyarkye said the film was “wobbly” but was steadied by Squibb’s performance.
“The film lurches between comic set pieces and more dramatic beats, and while Johansson proves a competent helmer, it’s not enough to overcome some dizzying tonal imbalances,” wrote Gyarkye. “Most disappointingly, we never really get a good sense of Eleanor’s interior life, which means that the film’s ambitions ultimately feel unfulfilled.”
Addressing the audience at the film’s premiere, Johansson said it was “a dream come true” to have her directorial debut presented at Cannes.
“When you make an independent film like this, no one is doing it for the money. Everyone came together because they loved the story and they loved the script so much,” she told the crowd. “It’s a film about friendship, grief, it’s about forgiveness. I think those are all themes that we could all use a lot more these days.”
First-time screenwriter Tory Kamen based the leading character Eleanor on her late grandmother Elinore, who passed away in 2020 aged 99.
“This is so beyond anything I'd hoped for this script over the last eight years of writing and rewriting and rewriting it,” Kamen previously shared on Instagram. “I only wish my grandma Elinore were here to see this but famously, she did not read the trades.”
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