Love. That’s a pretty big four letter word there. The biggest of the four letter words, dare I say. And that word covers a lot of categories, be it platonic love, romantic love, familial love, and all the other kinds of love they taught you about in Sunday school.
And that’s exactly what you’ll find in Grandma, a film written and directed by Paul Weitz and starring Lily Tomlin and Julia Garner. Tomlin plays Elle Reid, the grandmother of Garner’s character Sage, who is a pregnant teen on the run from her mother who kicked her out for becoming pregnant in the first place. Sage shows up at Elle’s house, asking for money for an abortion, and that’s how the whole story begins. In an enthralling sequence of events, we follow the two on their journey as they reconnect with themselves and with everyone around them.
A coming of age story, Tomlin and Garner deliver as they come to terms with their circumstances. We run into a number of characters and discover the obstacles Sage and Elle face on their journey. The audience is immediately sucked into this family drama, where anyone from a former husband to a current FWB is seen, all the while we see the strengthening of Sage’s and Elle’s relationship with each other.
What makes the film all the more exciting is the fact that Elle plays along with Sage’s plan. Elle is broke and alone, pushing people away from her who truly want to get to know her all the more. And finally it takes a visit from Sage to tell Elle that she does truly need people and she is not as invincible as she once thought. And the same goes for Sage: she’s growing up too quickly in the eyes of everyone she encounters and there isn’t much room for her to keep growing. She pushes everyone away just like her grandmother, and takes them this journey to truly realize that they are the same person despite all their differences they claim to have.
We had the chance to interview Lily Tomlin and Paul Weitz at Tribeca, so watch their interviews below.
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