There’s precisely one surprising moment in Scarlett Johansson’s feature directorial debut “Eleanor the Great,” written by Tory Kamen. It’s the impetus for the entire drama that unfolds in this film, and it feels genuinely risky — a taboo that will be hard for this film to resolve. Yet, everything that unfolds around this moment is entirely predictable.
Also unsurprising? That star June Squibb’s warm, humorous and slightly spiky performance elevates the wobbly material and tentative direction. If Johansson nails anything, it’s in allowing the 95-year-old Squibb to shine in only her second starring role (the first being last year’s action-comedy “Thelma”). For any flaws or faults of “Eleanor the Great” — and there are some — Squibb still might make you cry, even if you don’t want to.
That’s the good part about “Eleanor the Great,” which is a bit thin and treacly, despite its high-wire premise. The record-scratch startle that jump-starts the dramatic arc occurs when Eleanor (Squibb) is trying to figure out what to do with herself at a Manhattan Jewish community center after recently relocating from Florida. Her lifelong best friend and later-in-life roommate Bessie (Rita Zohar) has recently died, so Eleanor has moved in with her daughter, Lisa (Jessica Hecht), in New York City.
Harried Lisa sends Eleanor off to the JCC for a choir class, but the impulsive and feisty nonagenarian pooh-poohs the Broadway singing and instead follows a friendly face into a support group — for Holocaust survivors, she’s alarmed to discover. Yet put on the spot when they ask her to share her story of survival, Eleanor shares Bessie’s personal history of escaping a Polish concentration camp instead, with horrific details she learned from her friend over sleepless nights of tortured memories.
Eleanor’s lie could have been a small deception that played out over one afternoon, never to be spoken of again if she just ghosted the regular meeting, but there’s a wrinkle: an NYU student, Nina (Erin Kellyman), who wants to profile Eleanor for her journalism class. Eleanor initially makes the right choice, declining to participate, before making the wrong one, calling Nina and inviting her over when her own grandson doesn’t show up for Shabbat dinner. Thus begins a friendship built on a lie, and we know where this is going.
Nina and Eleanor continue their relationship beyond its journalistic origins because they’re both lonely and in mourning: Eleanor for Bessie, and Nina for her mother, also a recent loss. They both struggle to connect with their immediate families, Eleanor with terminally criticized daughter Lisa, and Nina with Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), her TV anchor father, paralyzed with grief over the death of his wife. And so they find an unlikely friend in each other, for lunches and bat mitzvah crashing and trips to Coney Island.
Eleanor decides to have a bat mitzvah herself, claiming she never had one due to the war (the reality is that she converted for marriage), but it feels mostly like a device for a big dramatic explosion of a revelation. It also serves the purpose of justifying Eleanor’s well-intentioned deception with lessons from the Torah.
It’s hard to stomach her continued lying, which is perhaps why the script keeps her mostly out of the support group — where the comparison to the real survivors would be too much to bear — and in the confines of a friendship with a college student far removed from that reality. Johansson also makes the choice to flash back to Bessie’s recounting of her life story when Eleanor is speaking, almost as if she’s channeling her friend and her pain. The stated intent is to share Bessie’s story when she no longer can, and surprisingly, everyone accepts this, perhaps because Squibb is too endearing to stay mad at.
Johansson’s direction is serviceable if unremarkable, and one has to wonder why this particular script spoke to her. Though it is morally complex and modest in scope, it doesn’t dive deep enough into the nuance here, opting for surface-level emotions. It’s Squibb’s performance and appealing screen presence that enable this all to work — if it does. Kellyman is terrific opposite Squibb, but this unconventional friendship tale is the kind of slight human interest story that slips from your consciousness almost as soon as it has made its brief impression.
Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
‘Eleanor the Great’
Rated: PG-13, for thematic elements, some language and suggestive references
BBC Breakfast star Nina Warhurst has made her return to the show after a heartbreaking family death
08:20, 03 Aug 2025Updated 08:22, 03 Aug 2025
BBC Breakfast presenter Nina Warhurst has returned to the programme after her father’s passing.
The popular morning show was back on air on Sunday (August 3) with Ben Thompson and Nina presenting together once again.
It’s been a tough period for Nina, who recently revealed that her father had passed away peacefully in a care home on July 2 after a prolonged struggle with dementia.
Sharing a touching black-and-white image of her hand clasped with her father’s, she penned: “My Dad died on Wednesday night. From Sunday me, my Mum and sisters spent precious time with him around the clock….singing, crying, laughing, sharing memories. On his last day we had nursing home afternoon tea, chippy chips and wine together.
BBC Breakfast’s Nina Warhurst supported as she returns to show after heartbreaking death(Image: BBC)
“He drifted away gently with me and Amy (Nina’s sister) holding him and telling him to ‘go head. We’ll see you there soon.’ And he did. I had my hand on his heart as the ripples softened and stopped.”, reports the Express.
“A gentle end to a gentle life. So much love and laughter and sunshine across days I’ll never forget. He is in my mind all the time now as we adjust to a world without him in it.
Nina’s father died recently
“I can’t quite accept that’s real yet. But we think it’s really important for anyone going through this to know that the end can be peaceful and beautiful.”
Supporters immediately flooded Nina with messages of comfort at the time. One viewer commented: “Oh my darling, this is such sad news. He seemed like a beautiful soul.” Another said: “So sorry, dear Nina and family. You did him proud. Always.”
However, a few weeks later and on Sunday, Nina was back on the famous red sofa on BBC Breakfast – and fans were more than chuffed to see her back. On X, one person penned: “Lovely to see Nina this morning.”
Her late dad struggled with dementia
Nina’s father Chris, had been diagnosed with mixed dementia, which is Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia, in 2022.In April this year, she spoke candidly about how his condition had affected her life.
The mum-of-three penned in an Instagram post: “I don’t think I really became a proper grownup until we had to look after my Dad. Because of dementia I lost the home I could go to and still be a child. I lost one of those few pillars of people who I knew would love me, whatever. I thought that support was lost.
But now I know that just being with him is enough. I don’t know if it’s primal, hormonal, chemical, emotional….. but leaning my head on his chest and closing my eyes for a few minutes gives me the sense of safety and love that I’ve always had and that I still need.”
“The Seagull: Malibu” and the seldom-revived “Strife,” two ambitious offerings in Theatricum Botanicum’s outdoor season, are reset in the American past.
Ellen Geer, the director, calls her version of Anton Chekhov’s play, “a retelling.” She relocates “The Seagull,” as a program note specifies and her production flamboyantly conveys, “to the self-centered Me Generation of the ’70s that followed the social upheaval of the ’60s.” Malibu, a California world unto its own, hemmed in by the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Santa Monica Mountains on the other, sets up a groovy, glamorous equivalent to the backwater country setting of Chekhov’s original, in which all of the characters seem to be suffering from terminal ennui.
“Strife,” John Galsworthy’s 1909 social drama about the human cost of a deadlock between management and labor, is transferred from the England-Wales border to Pennsylvania of the 1890s. The play, directed by Ellen Geer and Willow Geer, isn’t adapted in the freehanded way of “The Seagull: Malibu,” and the change of locale doesn’t always seem natural.
The production’s opening scene is slightly disorienting. The directors, called to an emergency meeting at the home of the chairman of the board of the American Steel Corp., have the haughty mien of British aristocrats. Later, at the freezing cold abode of one of the leaders of the strike, the impoverished scene takes on unmistakable Dickensian notes. There are a fair number of Irish accents in the mix, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if one of the actors broke out his best cockney.
“The Seagull: Malibu” isn’t always consistent in setting up the time period, but the production’s larkish approach is infectious. Arkadina (Susan Angelo) plays the self-absorbed actress mother who sold out to Hollywood. Defensive about her age, she’s even more prickly about the condescending attitude of her would-be avant-garde playwright son, Constantine (Christopher Glenn Gilstrap), who basically thinks she’s a B-movie hack.
Gilstrap’s Constantine looks more like a future yacht rock frontman than a theatrical renegade. Angelo’s Arkadina seems destined to have her career resurrected in the next decade by a recurring role on either “Dallas” or “Dynasty.” The charged Oedipal dynamics between them are vividly fleshed out.
Rajiv Shah and Susan Angelo in “The Seagull: Malibu” at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.
(Ian Flanders)
Willow Geer plays Masha, the Chekhov character who insouciantly declares that she’s in mourning for her life. Her Masha is a pothead and sloppy self-dramatizing drunk, hopelessly in love with Constantine, who only has eyes for Nina (Caroline Quigley). Masha confides her discontent to Dr. Dore (Daniel Reichert), a Gestalt therapist who, like Chekhov’s more traditional Dr. Dorn, has an empirical worldview that stands in stark contrast to the romantic dreaminess of everyone else at the estate.
Thad (Tim Halligan), Arkadina’s rechristened brother, suffers from fragile health and a sketchy backstory. Halligan, however, gives the character definition, especially when advocating for his nephew and risking the wrath of his volatile, penny-pinching sister. Trigger (Rajiv Shah) is the new version of Trigorin, the established writer who, as Arkadina’s younger lover, resists becoming her property even as he enjoys the perks of their celebrity relationship.
The boldly amusing and good-natured production makes the most of the fading California hippie era. The final act, unfortunately, is dreadfully acted. Quigley’s Nina is a delight in the play’s early going, all innocence and starry-eyed enthusiasm. But there appears to be no artistic growth when she returns to encounter a still-lovesick Constantine. Quigley’s acting is as melodramatic and artificial as Nina’s was said to be before her travails and losses transformed her talent.
This isn’t the production’s only failure of subtlety, but it’s surely the most consequential. Still, if you can cope with a deflating finale, there’s much to enjoy in this update of “The Seagull,” not least the glorious Topanga summer night backdrop, which translates Chekhov’s setting into a rustic West Coast paradise.
Emily Bridges and Franc Ross in “Strife” at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.
(Ian Flanders)
I can’t remember ever having seen a Galsworthy play, so I was grateful for Theatrium Botanicum’s vision in producing “Strife.” Awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1932, Galsworthy is better known for his novels than his plays. (The 1967 BBC television adaptation of his Forsyte family chronicles brought him immense posthumous acclaim.)
“Strife” is an intelligent thesis play, not on the verbal or theatrical level of George Bernard Shaw’s sparkling comedy of ideas but impressive all the same for its complexity of argument and compassionate determination to understand all sides of a problem. The play is especially resonant at this moment when workers are treated like items in a budget that can be erased without regard for human consequences.
There’s a rousing speech about the God of Capital, “a white-faced, stony-hearted monster” that says, “‘I’m very sorry for you, poor fellows — you have a cruel time of it, I know,’ but will not give you one dollar of its dividends to help you have a better time.” These words are spoken by David Roberts (Gerald C. Rivers), a labor hard-liner and rabble-rouser, who is the ideological enemy and (mirror image of) John Anthony (Franc Ross), the chairman of American Steel who refuses to give an inch to the demands of the workers.
In portraying these intractable figures in equivalent moral terms, Galsworthy reveals, if not his privileged background, then his muddled thinking on economic justice. But this large-cast drama (one of the reasons it’s rarely produced today) provides a broad spectrum of human experience, adding depth and nuance to what is undeniably a vigorous debate.
Brian Wallace, left, and Gerald C. Rivers in “Strife” at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.
(Ian Flanders)
Enid Underwood (Emily Bridges), Mr. Anthony’s married daughter, is desperate to help her ailing servant, Annie Roberts (Earnestine Phillips), whose health has been destroyed since her husband, David, has been on strike. Enid’s sympathy is strong, but her class allegiance is stronger, setting up an intriguing character study that takes us into the heart of the societal dilemma Galsworthy diligently dissects.
The acting is often at the level of community theater — broad, strident and overly exuberant. Galsworthy, to judge by this revival, seems to be working far outside the tradition of realism. I wish the directors had reined in some of the hoary excesses of the performers, but I felt fortunate to experience a play that might not be an indelible classic but is too incisive to be forgotten.
‘The Seagull: Malibu’ and ‘Strife’
Where: Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga Schedule: Playing in repertory through Oct. 5. For complete schedules, visit theatricum.com
Coronation Street’s latest episode confirmed Gary Windass was in a coma amid a brutal mystery attack, but amid Nina Lucas fearing she’d done something, is someone else to blame?
Coronation Street may have ruled out Nina and Summer as Gary’s attacker(Image: ITV)
Gary Windass’ attack on Coronation Street will be hot topic as fans try to figure out what happened to him and who did the crime.
But perhaps two people have been ruled out despite it being heavily hinted they are involved. Gary was revealed to be in a coma in hospital during Friday’s episode of the ITV soap.
Prior to now it was thought he’d been staying with his mother Anna Windass away from Weatherfield, but when he didn’t return home his wife Maria Connor was concerned. Then on Friday Maria got a text message from ‘Gary’ stating he was fine and at a mate’s house, and would be home soon.
Of course new information has come to light though that could well suggest Gary has been in a coma for days, and therefore did not send that message. Well of course he didn’t send the text, as by the end of the episode we saw him in hospital and unconscious.
So whoever attacked Gary must have his phone, and is covering their tracks. New spoilers had teased a cover-up was underway, ahead of Maria reporting Gary as a missing person with the police in upcoming episodes.
Something will make Maria’s blood run cold, sending her to the police station in a bid to find her missing husband. Amid her concern, someone, or more than one person perhaps, knows where he is, and knows what has happened.
Coronation Street’s latest episode confirmed Gary Windass was in a coma(Image: ITV)
As well as keeping the truth from Maria and Gary’s loved ones, the mystery attacker, it’s soon revealed, has told the hospital a fake name for Gary while also claiming to be his next of kin. The attacker is clearly trying to stop the truth from coming up, going to desperate lengths to cover their tracks.
These scenes will be delved into in the coming weeks as the plot continues. But Friday’s episode appeared to confirm that it was Gary who Nina Lucas and Summer Spellman had seen the night they were on drugs.
The girls were high on LSD when something sent them racing to the café, screaming and crying. They soon revealed they’d witnessed something bad, torn over whether to tell the police.
During Friday’s episode Nina broke down to her uncle Roy Cropper, and eventually she explained everything to him and detective Kit Green. We learned that what Summer and Nina had seen was a man “lunging” at them, before Nina pushed him and ran in terror.
She claimed that before they fled the man fell and hit his head. She told Roy there was blood and the man was not moving, but fearing for her safety she and Summer ran away and did not say anything.
Friday’s episode appeared to confirm that it was Gary who Nina Lucas and Summer Spellman had seen the night they were on drugs(Image: ITV)
Now Nina is convinced someone is hurt and it’s her fault, asking Kit if a body had been found or if someone was missing. As no one believed the incident happened Nina struggled, sure that something was going on.
She told Roy she’d hurt someone and that she was determined to find out who. In that moment we saw Gary in hospital, with it alluding that Gary was the man Nina and Summer saw, and that perhaps Nina was the one who attacked him.
But a couple of things clearly rule Nina and Summer out. The fact someone has been posing as Gary and messaging Maria, this cannot be Nina as she has no idea who the man is and if it even happened.
She’s also confessed to everything, struggling with that’s happened too, so for her to send messages or cover up the crime doesn’t make any sense, let alone posing as Gary’s next of kin. The same goes for Summer, and neither of them seem to be aware of the link to Gary.
Gary Windass’ attack on Coronation Street will be hot topic as Maria Connor decides to report her husband as a missing person(Image: ITV)
She also doesn’t seem to be aware the man she saw, Gary, is in hospital, yet the person who attacked him does know he’s there and will likely visit him given the spoilers about what the attacker does to cover up their crime. It just wouldn’t make sense for Nina to be desperate to work out who they are and tell the police, and then secretly know the truth – so who did attack Gary?
Whoever it is must have his phone, and must know he was away from Weatherfield amid their cover story. So far fans have wondered if Gary was robbed or attacked on his way home, or if, given it likely happened around Monday’s episode, someone at the party was involved.
A theory suggests teenager Brody might be to blame after he fled the party, after Gary’s run-in with his dad Mick. Viewers suggested Kit may be covering for Brody, as other fans wondered if Lauren Bolton attacked Gary thinking it was Joel Deering. A further theory suggested Debbie Webster may be to blame after her recent arrest.
