Grandma (2015)

GRANDMA  (2015)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Paul Weitz
    Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Marcia Gay Harden,
    Judy greer, Elizabeth Peña, Sam Elliott
It's early yet as this movie begins, and already Elle Reid's day is not going well. First off, she breaks up with her lover of four months. It's not an amicable split, and Elle's behavior is horrible. Not long after that, Elle's granddaughter Sage shows up at her door, needing $600 immediately for an abortion. That wouldn't be a problem, except that Elle's broke, having cut up all of her credit cards and turned them into a wind chime. (Elle's career as a poet and sometime academic has not resulted in affluence, to say the least.) Elle agrees to help, though, so she and Sage pile into her Eisenhower-era Dodge, which (of course) won't start. And so it goes. Elle's played by Lily Tomlin, and one of the things that makes her interesting to watch is that she doesn't even try to be likeable. In fact, she's about as warm and fuzzy as Bill Murray's title character in "St. Vincent" (a movie this one resembles), except that where Vincent appeared to not give a shit, Elle is emphatically pissed off, at her luck, her life, herself and everybody around her, and it's made her mean. She's a good person, though she'd deny that. She's just not very nice. She's got a heart, but you could look a long time and not find it. She's a bitch on wheels, except when the Dodge won't start, and then she's a bitch without them. What it adds up to is that this is the best role Tomlin has had in ages, in a picture that's hard to imagine without her. (Weitz wrote the script with Tomlin in mind.) It makes a point without being too preachy, and hits the right emotional chords without being too cute, at least most of the time. It's funny, besides, and Tomlin's performance has everything to do with that. One other thing: If grandma tells you to take care of your teeth - and this one will, over and over - you'd better just do what she says. She's not kidding about that. And this is one bad-ass grandma.