Eleanor the Nice is a affected person, trustworthy take a look at grief
Eleanor the Grant had its world premiere on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant (TIFF) on September 8, 2025. Canadian launch date September 26, 2025. “Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor the Nice is a affected person, trustworthy take a look at grief.”
Eleanor the Nice is Scarlett Johansson’s first movie as a director. She chooses a quiet story about grief. The main focus stays on one girl attempting to dwell after loss.
Eleanor, an older girl, loses her lifelong good friend, who was additionally a Holocaust survivor. The loss pulls the ground out from beneath her. She leaves Florida and returns to New York, hoping to search out consolation in household and acquainted streets. As an alternative, she drifts. Reminiscence and absence sit together with her in each scene.
Making new associates at ninety proves tough. Eager for connection, Eleanor befriends a 19-year-old scholar who brings gentle however not stability. On the Holocaust survivors’ assist group, she meets Nina, who’s going through the demise of her mom. Nina’s father handles grief by pretending it isn’t occurring. Three folks, three other ways of carrying loss. These relationships give the story form and present how grief appears totally different for everybody.
The story sharpens when Eleanor’s place within the survivors’ group turns right into a lie with critical penalties. Her want for belonging outweighs honesty. The choice complicates her grief as an alternative of easing it.
Johansson directs with restraint. She doesn’t attain for large moments. The story is about how grief touches each day life. Consuming breakfast alone. Strolling by a road that holds previous reminiscences. Sitting in silence. Eleanor by no means explains her ache. You see it in her pauses and in the best way she resists change.
The supporting forged provides weight. Relations need to assist however have no idea how. The brand new friendships check Eleanor, generally giving consolation and generally exposing her loneliness. These tensions make the movie really feel true. Grief isn’t one thing solved. It’s one thing carried.
Johansson lets scenes play with out dashing. The digicam lingers on Eleanor’s face, providing you with time to take a seat together with her. The slowness mirrors how grief strikes. Nothing neat. Nothing fast.
Eleanor’s journey isn’t about closure. It’s about studying to dwell with ache and nonetheless transfer ahead. Eleanor the Nice is a quiet however sturdy debut. It respects grief and honours the energy wanted to face one other day.
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