by Peter Callaghan

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, famously wrote that: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” He missed out two things: time; and the passing of it. Or as the poet Eileen Myles more wryly put it at the start of this delightful little film by writer and director Paul Weitz: “Time passes. That’s for sure.” With a running time of under 80 minutes and a lightness of touch bordering on nonchalance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Grandma is nothing more than a halfway house between a short film with promise and a motion picture with a niche following, but the subtlety of the performances (particularly by Lily Tomlin in her first leading role in over 25 years as the titular grandma Elle Reid) adds depth, feeling and a delicious sense of humour to what is still a provocative and largely unexplored subject: abortion.

We first meet Lily, a penniless but debt-free poet “marginally well-known forty years ago”, in the first of six chapters entitled Ending. Referring both to the termination of her four-month relationship with Olivia (Judy Greer) whom she describes as a mere “footnote” in comparison to her thirty year relationship with her late partner Violet; and the abortion of the ten week old foetus within the womb of her granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) which has been scheduled for 5.45 that afternoon for the small fee of $650. However, Sage has a problem: she is $632 short. Her “kind of boyfriend” Cam (Nat Wolff) wants nothing to do with her. Her mother, Judy (Marcia Gay Harden) ditto. And her father is, was and forever will be a mystery.

Sam ElliotStep forward… Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Supergran. Who invites Sage into the passenger seat of her battered 1955 Dodge Royal Lancer to beg, borrow and steal the remainder of the medical fees. First up, The Sperminator whom she hits in the balls with a hockey stick. “Some people should just not grow beards,” she tells him. “Your face looks like an armpit.” Next, her transgender tattooist friend, Deathy (Laverne Cox) who dips the till and throws in a black-inked O for good measure. Followed by a visit to a tight-fisted cafe owner with a keen interest in first editions whom she tells to “take your sixty bucks and shove them up your ass”, her ex-husband Karl (Sam Elliott) who offers her half a grand in exchange for “a kiss, not a peck, a real kiss” and finally her daughter and Lily’s mother Judy (Marcia Gay Harden) whose tongue is faster and more lethal than a chameleon with the munchies.

Grandma is really a road movie. A rare road movie starring and about women. Not as crass as Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon in Tammy, not as esoteric as Reese Witherspoon and her shadow in Wild and not as epic as Geena Davis and you know who in Thelma and Louise. But a subtle, witty and life-affirming celebration of female relationships both familial and romantic; a study of ageing and the harsh stereotypes associated with older women; and the breaking of taboos around issues of abortion, sexuality and death. “When you’re dead, you’re dead,” Lily tells Sage bluntly. “It’s blank. The end of story. Void.” Grandma is anything but. Though the male equivalent Dirty Grandpa starring Zac Efron and Robert De Niro is not only a void, but one to avoid.

[imdb id=”tt4270516″]

Peter Callaghan
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