It’s Never Too Late To Live Your Best Life
Scarlett Johansson makes her directorial debut in Sony Pictures Classics’ newest film ‘Eleanor The Great’, which will be released only in theaters on September 26, 2025. This film stars June Squibb as a 94-year-old woman who moves from Florida to Manhattan, following the devastating loss of her best friend and roommate.
Age is the eternal cop-out…
From the moment we learn to walk, suddenly we’re “too old” to crawl. Next we’ve “grown out” of playing with dolls and believing in fairy tales, and end up convincing ourselves it’s “too late” to chase the dreams we once held so dear.
Like Eleanor Morgenstein, you too can break free of this false paradigm and learn to live your best life at any age. It’s true that there is a lot of pressure associated with that phrase—”best life”, but no matter how it looks, all that matters is that you find the life that’s best for you. And that “best” is allowed to evolve and change with you over time. For Eleanor, “best” looks like leaving velcro shoes aligned perfectly at the end of the bed and organizing her pills for the week at the kitchen table over a gossip session, until those beloved routines are upended by a devastating loss of her best friend, prompting Eleanor to move home to New York.
When we lose a cherished part of our “best life”, the grief can be so overwhelming that the thought of rebuilding a new life, with a different kind of “best”, can seem impossible. Starting over when you’re unhappy can be exhilarating, but starting over when you’ve lost your biggest source of happiness and comfort is a courageous undertaking deserving of Eleanor’s epithet, “The Great”.
No matter your age or the circumstances you find yourself in, it is never too late to find or live your “best life”. Here are some of the most inspiring examples you can draw on and apply to your own personal pursuit of happiness.
Build A Community
In the film, Eleanor begins the process of finding her new “best” when her daughter enrolls her in a class at the Jewish Community Center. There she meets Nina (Erin Kellyman), a 19 year-old journalism student who has lost her mother and is following in the footsteps of her news anchor father, Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The two develop a friendship as Nina asks to interview Eleanor for a school project.
Sometimes we need a push to connect with the people around us, especially when we don’t have routine encounters with classmates or work colleagues to rely upon. But all it takes is one step outside of our comfort zone to place us in an opportunity to connect with someone we never would have met otherwise. Someone younger, someone older, from a different background or experience than our own, but someone who can connect with us on an emotional level. Forming these meaningful bonds gives us a sense of belonging and purpose needed to live our best lives.
Chase A Childhood Dream (Again)
Scarlett Johansson was first inspired to direct while watching Robert Redford during the filming of The Horse Whisperer when she was only twelve years old. Twenty-seven years and an incredibly successful acting career later, her directorial debut made its premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
Just because you’ve found success or a routine in one specific area, doesn’t mean you can never pivot away from it to try something new. You can change your career, your wardrobe, your hair (or anything else for that matter) in order to bring to life the version of you you dreamt of becoming as a child. There is no age limit on self-fulfillment.
Discover The Value In Your Personal Story
Nina proudly tells her father she is profiling a holocaust survivor for her school project, but there might be more to this story than it seems. Personal stories are precious and in describing her relationship with her dead best friend, Eleanor says, “We lived together for 11 years, and sometimes when you live with someone for that long, you forget where you end and they begin”. This theme ties in with the film’s declaration as “a comically poignant exploration of how the stories we hear become the stories we tell”.
We’ll have to wait for the film’s premiere to find out what else Nina discovers about Eleanor’s story, but it’s clear that their friendship helps Nina, and her father, come to terms with their own story. This film dives into these important topics, urging us to lead with truth and with heart.
Learning to take pride in and ownership of where you’ve been and the life you’ve lived so far, is an invaluable step in figuring out where you go from here as you begin to write your next life chapter.
We hope it’s the best one yet.
So pick up that pen and a ticket to Eleanor The Great, coming only to theaters on September 26th!
