| Director | Scarlett Johansson |
|---|---|
| Box office | $4.8 million |
After the death of Bessie, her best friend and roommate of twelve years, 94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein leaves Florida and moves to New York City to live with her daughter Lisa and grandson Max. Feeling sidelined by her busy family, Eleanor finds herself at a loss when Lisa drops her off at the local Jewish Community Center.
Through a misunderstanding, Eleanor wanders into a support group for Holocaust survivors. Rather than correct the mistake, she begins sharing Bessie's harrowing story of surviving the Holocaust as if it were her own — a way to honor her friend's memory while filling the void of loneliness and finding a sense of belonging. Her fabricated history captures the attention of Nina Davis, a grieving journalism student who has recently lost her mother. The two form an unlikely and genuine friendship, with Nina eventually incorporating Eleanor's "survivor testimony" into a class project. Nina's father Roger, a local television newscaster who is himself struggling to process his wife's death and connect with his daughter, decides to broadcast Eleanor's story and though distressed, Eleanor agrees to it.
The subsequent unraveling — exposed by Lisa when she discovers the deception during the filming — leaves a trail of damage: public humiliation for Eleanor's family, a sense of betrayal among the survivors who welcomed her, and a rupture in her bond with Nina. Eleanor subsequently agrees to move to a care home, which she had previously been staunchly against.
Roger's decision to air the story and bring further attention to Eleanor's deception initially upsets Nina, who confronts him for his failure to help her during her grieving and thinking only of himself. However, Roger focuses the story on Eleanor's grief over losing Bessie and the topic of grief as a whole (including his own struggles), and the broadcast is seen by Nina, Lisa and Eleanor. This ultimately leads to Eleanor reconciling with both Nina and Lisa, and Roger reconciling with Nina.
Eleanor finds herself making new friends and actually enjoying her time at the care home. Nina and Lisa visit Eleanor, and on their way to lunch, Eleanor goes back to the support group to apologize and to share Bessie's story truthfully.
The film ends with a flashback of Eleanor and Bessie, with Bessie tearfully discussing her experience during the Holocaust and saying that though she struggled for a long time with survivor's guilt and wondered why she lived when her younger brother did not, she has started to understand it was so she could find and share her life with Eleanor.