Grandma, film review: drama, subversive comedy and pro-choice polemic

It is heartening to see a film that tackles unintended pregnancy and abortion in a humorous and sensitive way

Julia Garner, left, and Lily Tomlin appear in a scene from Grandma (Sony Pictures)

Grandma is a gem of a film with a very abrasive edge. It features a brilliant performance from Lily Tomlin. The writer-director Paul Weitz manages the unlikely feat of combining family drama, subversive comedy and pro-choice polemic in 80 brisk and very funny minutes.

Tomlin is the grandma of the title, a lesbian poet and academic called Elle Reid who, at the start of the film, has just split up with her much younger girlfriend (Judy Greer). In an anti-capitalist gesture, Elle has also cut up her credit cards and is close to broke. That means she doesn’t have the money to help her precocious 18-year-old granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner), who is pregnant, doesn’t want the baby and needs to raise a little over $600 to pay for her “procedure” later that day. The film follows Elle and Sage as they drive around town, hit on old friends or come up with schemes (among them, selling Betty Friedan first editions) to raise the necessary money.

The glory of Tomlin’s performance lies in its beguiling mix of obnoxiousness and sweetness. Elle has brilliant timing when it comes to delivering caustic put-downs, yet Tomlin shows us the woman behind the brittle facade, who, for all her reserves of sarcasm, is vulnerable and even a little naive. Garner underplays cleverly as the fey granddaughter who turns out to be almost as tough and resilient as Elle.

It is heartening to see a film that tackles unintended pregnancy and abortion in a humorous and sensitive way. This is not an issue to be flippant about. Weitz, helped by an excellent and almost entirely female cast, is never glib: and nor does he take to the soap box.

Paul Weitz, 80 mins Starring: Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Judy Greer