There is a lovely story of friendship, grief and starting over at the heart of "Eleanor the Great." The film, directed by Scarlett Johansson in her feature debut, gets tangled in a plot contrivance that is, at best, unnecessary and at worst, loathsome. That's the problem with the elevator pitch mentality, though. A story about a 90-something trying to make friends in a new city might sound a little too simple, a little too straightforward. What if she does so by pretending to be a Holocaust survivor? I'm not kidding. Eleanor is played by June Squibb (the great). At 94-years-old, she has moved from Florida to New York after the death of her best friend and roommate Bessie (Rita Zohar). Her daughter, Lisa (Jessica Hecht), and grandson, Max (Will Price), have taken her into their small Manhattan apartment, but they only seem interested in getting Eleanor into an assisted living arrangement. Lisa especially treats her mother's presence like an inconvenience, a problem to fix, and Eleanor starts looking elsewhere for companionship. The thing is Eleanor had a great life in Florida, living with her platonic best friend in a little apartment. The script, Tory Kamen's first produced screenplay, smartly introduces this idyllic moment first. It is a distinct joy to watch the two nonagenarians go about their daily activities, from velcroing their shoes to doing their exercises on the beach. Squibb recently had a version of this in the delightful "Thelma," but there she was alone, a widow determined to hold onto her independent living situation. Here, Bessie and Eleanor help each other, whether it's waking up on time, or standing up for the other at the local supermarket when their preferred brand of kosher pickles isn't on the shelf and the teenage employee dares to... Read More