Eleanor the Great, from first time director Scarlett Johansson, stars June Squibb as a kind of elder anti-hero whose life and mature wisdom should have prevented her from making a bad decision, but didn’t. Minor spoilers ahead.

Eleanor the Great begins with Eleanor (June Squibb) and her long time best friend and roommate Bessie (Rita Zohar) going through their daily routines. Breakfast, a walk by the sea, a trip to the grocery store where they prank a young stocker. They are both widows and have been together a long time.

In the early part of the film, humor was used to paint Eleanor as prickly and a little unkind sometimes. That set her up as an imperfect woman who would do what she did later in the film.

Rita Zohar as Bessie was fabulous. When she woke from nightmares in the middle of the night, she and Eleanor would sit in the kitchen over cups of tea. Bessie told Eleanor the story of her escape from Poland and about the horrors of The Holocaust. Bessie talked and talked. Eleanor listened. We face a rising threat of a similar nature today; I found Bessie’s story particularly relevant.

Then Bessie died. Alone and lonely, Eleanor decided to go back to New York City to live with her daughter, Lisa (Jessica Hecht), and her grandson, Max (Will Price). Eleanor and Lisa didn’t have a very good relationship. Eleanor was critical and sarcastic toward her. Lisa had hopes of finding Eleanor a retirement home to live in, but she started her stay in NYC in Lisa’s apartment.

Lisa signed her mother up for a singing class at the JCC. Eleanor never made it to the singing class, but wandered accidentally into a Holocaust survivors support group. There she told Bessie’s story as if it were her own. That lie grew into a huge mess.

A university journalism student named Nina (Erin Kellyman) was a guest in the support group that day. She was moved by Eleanor’s story and asked to write about it for her journalism class. Instead of owning up to the truth then and there, Eleanor let it escalate by agreeing to talk with Nina.

Eleanor and Nina became very close. Eleanor was grieving over Bessie. Nina had lost her mother recently. They were united in grief.

Lisa’s father Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor) was the host of a television show about life in New York City. He latched onto the story his daughter was writing. Oh oh.

Unlike Bessie who was born Jewish, Eleanor had converted in 1958 when she married. She’d never had a bat mitzvah. She wanted one. Now. Another big oh oh.

When Eleanor’s whole lie exploded in a public way, the film became about whether her family and Nina’s family could forgive her for lying to them. The film concluded with a study in how we grieve.

Tory Kamen wrote the script for this film, which I found a little ragged around the edges. But I thought Scarlett Johansson did a good job as director, especially in the more intimate scenes. She found a great cast for her first outing as a director. I hope she keeps doing this work. We need more directors like her.

You can see Eleanor the Great on Netflix.