I always thought that Tomlin was an underrated actress and she absolutely shines in this movie. So does Sam Elliott, even though he only has a few minutes of screen time - the exchange between the two of them is priceless. I am a fan of Julia Garner's work on Ozark but at times she struggled to keep up in this film. Overall it is a good movie about the challenges that women face and the complex mother / daughter relationship.

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A difficult subject, abortion, is barely touched upon. Instead the film is more a relationship drama that is watchable, enjoyable even, but simplistic. Mainly a showcase for Tomlin who is is on good form and nearly matched by a good performance from Garner.

A woman (Lily Tomlin) visits old friends to help her grand-daughter (Julia Garner) pull the funds together for an abortion.

Grandma revolves around its title character and Lily Tomlin is more than up to the job of holding this film together. She’s acerbic and mean, yet kind to her grand-daughter. It starts to feel a bit like shtick, but the film goes in some interesting directions and stops us getting too tired of the routine.

The stand out moment is a ten minute sequence with Sam Elliot, the only truly well written exchange in the film. He plays an ex-husband she abandoned 35 years ago. The actors battle it out and two whole lives get laid bare on screen. For some, time heals all wounds, for others they hurt forever.

Unfortunately there are no other moments like this and despite Tomlin’s great work, Grandma starts to feel sterile. The abortion itself is a mere afterthought, which would be fine but the film isn’t building to anything else.

Still, Grandma is worth your time partly because at 80 minutes it won’t take much of it, and of course partly because of a brilliant central performance.

http://benoliver999.com/film/2016/03/13/grandma/

Seemingly quite simple but it feels really special and unique. Tomlin and Harden are firing on so many different levels.