Scarlett Johansson's transition from marquee actor to director has arrived with a thud for some critics. Eleanor The Great, a wholly earnest family melodrama that Johansson both directed and headlines, was dismissed by Tim Grierson of AV Club as "insultingly syrupy" in a review published on Thursday, a rebuke that underscores the high expectations and low tolerance that often greet star-directed passion projects.

The film centers on Eleanor, a community-minded matriarch attempting to stitch together a fractured family and revitalize a small, struggling town. Johansson favors broad, affectionate portrayals and a generous tonal palette: warm lighting, soaring orchestrations and a supporting ensemble of stage-savvy actors who deliver emotive, if occasionally overwrought, performances. The result, according to Grierson, tips from sentimental to saccharine, flattening the specificities of grief and repair into a sentimental blueprint that resists moral or emotional complication.

Critics' objections focus less on technical competence than on tone and restraint. Johansson’s direction is confident in composition and sympathetic to actors; scene construction and pacing betray a filmmaker with a clear visual vocabulary. Yet several reviewers contend that her instincts lean toward emotional amplification rather than interrogation, producing set pieces that aim for catharsis more than nuance. "There are moments of genuine tenderness," Grierson wrote, "but they are too often smothered under the film’s relentless insistence on uplift."

That critique intersects with broader industry dynamics. Hollywood has seen an influx of established actors moving into directing, from Greta Gerwig's indie-rooted successes to higher-profile genre pivots. Studios have been willing to bankroll these transitions when a star’s name promises built-in audience draw; but with tightening theatrical windows and heightened scrutiny over marketing dollars, the tolerance for middling critical returns is slimmer. Eleanor The Great’s commercial prospects will be closely watched: should it underperform at the box office, the pressure on distribution partners to pivot quickly to streaming will intensify.

There is also a cultural subtext to the backlash. Sentimentality is frequently coded as a feminine trait in critical discourse, and female directors are often policed more harshly for perceived mawkishness than their male counterparts. Some commentators have suggested that labeling Johansson’s tone "syrupy" may reflect gendered expectations about how women storytellers handle emotion. Others counter that audiences continue to embrace feel-good fare — particularly amid social and economic anxiety — and that a film's emotional directness can be a deliberate tactic rather than a flaw.

From a business perspective, Eleanor The Great represents both an investment in star power and a test of how studios will hedge bets on prestige for on-screen heads who move to the director’s chair. If the film finds a warm audience among older or female viewers, it could recoup through theatrical legs and lucrative streaming deals. If not, it will become a cautionary case for firms weighing similar projects.

For Johansson, the immediate stakes are reputational. A candid misstep could chill future offers to direct larger-scale projects; a resilient box office or robust streaming performance could reframe the conversation around her auteurial voice. Either way, Eleanor The Great arrives at a moment when Hollywood is wrestling with who gets to tell sentimental stories, how critics evaluate emotion, and how much room remains for established stars to reinvent themselves behind the camera.