Grandma

Director and writer Paul Weitz submits a heart-warming script in Grandma that is both funny and moving, allowing his actors to shine with special mention of Lily Tomlin’s stellar performance.

Grandma follows Elle (Lily Tomlin), a formerly successful poet who has just broken up with her girlfriend. Her granddaughter, Sage, shows up unexpectedly in need of $600 for an appointment at the end of the day to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Elle, who is temporarily broke, spends the entire day trying to scrounge the cash with untimely visits to old friends and past flames, and ends up rattling skeletons and bringing up secrets.

Grandma shows an eccentric side to the woman in your life who is normally known for making tea and knitting jumpers. Elle is by no means a traditional grandma and Tomlin gives a career-making performance that is grippingly funny, uplifting and evocative. It seems as though the character was written for Tomlin as she naturally embodies the stubborn, quirky and doting grandmother. Her performance is even more poignant when she is joined by Julia Garner as granddaughter-in-need Sage. Though Sage as a character is quite weak, the relationship between grandmother and granddaughter renders a stirring performance that pulls at the heartstrings and gets more than a few laughs, particularly with such a serious issue at the heart of the storyline.

Grandma credits some of Paul Weitz’s finest work as he provokes laughter and tears without making light of a real moral and social topic. It is refreshing to witness a story that has depth of a profound nature with comedy at its core. Weitz reveals a complexity to a familial archetype in an unexpected way.

Dominique Perrett

Grandma is released nationwide on 11^th December 2015.

Watch the trailer for Grandma here: