Veteran actress/comedienne Lily Tomlin offers a career-capping performance as the no-nonsense Elle, the bent-down but not beaten by life, curmudgeonly, ex-hippie feminist poet who is saying basically:if you don't like me, there's the door. In fact, as we see early on, Elle is grieving the loss of a long term lover. When her granddaughter, Sage appears, what follows is a road trip in which Elle and Sage (the very porcelain-skinned Julia Garner) are revealed as fully formed characters as they visit former friends and a long-avoided daughter (Marcia Gay Harden) The sight of the two tooling along in Tomlin's 1955 Dodge Royal, radio blaring hip-hop is one to behold. The car, itself, is almost a character. The reunion with Elle's long ago lover (the always amazing, under-utilized Sam Elliott) is no feel-good, soggy tearfest. Much of what occurs emerges from a finely tuned, literate script by director Paul Weitz. Very few scripts use the word "solipsism". Great line"You're a philanthropist"."No, the word is misanthrope". There is a possible Oscar nod for Ms. Tomlin (who is in one of her best roles since All of Me)
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