In the opening scenes of this financially challenged flick "Grandma" under the direction of Paul Weitz, I swore I was going to show my disdain for it. But after a while, I started to progressively get into it as the characters kind of became easy to relate with as their stories drew its attention to its audiences making it all the more easier to watch. It's a rare finding to see a film where the film is sinking in expectations in the beginning only to emerge later on the film, but "Grandma" is one of those exceptions. Lily Tomlin is the leading performer as Elle Reid, a cynical smarmy, foul-mouthed lesbian poet, who before the film starts has just broken up with her girlfriend (Judy Greer) after courting for four months. In an attempt to vent out her frustration, she regards her lover as nothing more than a footnote. Shortly after this messy breakup, she gets a visit from Sage (Julia Garner), her granddaughter who needs some much needed cash to go with her abortion but is too afraid to ask her intimidating mother Judy (the always incredible and fearful Marcia Gay Harden). Elle is also low on dough, but still takes Sage along for a rough and wild ride to get some old allies to see if they could conjure up a few bucks that they owe her.The opening scenes were quite eye-catching, but the early scenes were placed as just an excuse to have Tomlin's Elle to churn out the laughs by embarrassing Sage in one situation after the next. They visit a coffee shop that was once a clinic for women facing similar problems as Sage's and sure enough Elle causes a scene by loudly exploiting the high costs of abortions which leads Elle get into a verbal sparring match with an unfortunate worker named Chau (John Cho). They visit the diner where her ex Olivia works, which results in a myriad of childish verbal abuse and condescending insults. They come to a tattoo parlour and the tattoo artist (Laverne Cox) isn't strong in her finances, but offers Elle a new tattoo. Tomlin is truly a great legend in comedy that traces back to the 1960's, but sadly here she seems reduced to just playing the type-cast sassy grandma.It's just that we've seen this way too many times in movies where old-timers get involved in awkward situations and are doing it just to get a laugh from their audience. And to make it more appalling they force the comedy down our throats with that awful pizzicato scores in the background.By the time Elle gets to visit one of her rare relationships with her ex-husband Karl (Sam Elliott), whom she was estranged with for 30 years before discovering that her true affection is with women, this movie starts to pick up. To see her go so far as to visit the man she kept herself apart for so long clearly points out she's low on options to get money while reminiscing awful memories about their troubled past.Even though his role is very brief, Elliott truly brings out the best in his performance and truly shows that less could mean more Elliott brings a lot of depth, emotional pain and nuance to his role he is the character that garners the most sympathy from. After all the superficial and forceful humour depicted here, Elliott turns the table with a more real and raw turn that has a dramatic edge to the film. Elle starts to change on me as we see her transform from a sitcom like geriatric to a more humane character we could all relate to. Even when the film returns to the madcap silliness, I have become more invested in her character. Sure abortion is a subject matter that is very sensitive to grasp at, it will surely spark divinity in how this situation is handled. One thing for sure, Sage is not going to change her mind about going through this difficult procedure. What makes this film so unique is that every character has a differing opinion of this heavy-handed subject matter, but it's handled in a mature perspective, even if the comical elements tell you otherwise.There are no villains in how one feels about abortion which is refreshing in itself. The other trait that makes this film unique is that it goes along with Sage's decision without being judgmental even though the baggage she carries with her is something she'll have to deal with.The midway comeback in this movie isn't strong on unpredictability. The closing scenes are cliched with sentimental vibes and moral lessons we would expect from a standard comedy-drama. However, the emotions will surely tug at your heartstrings and hope that all ends well for the characters in the film once it ends. It's truly a film one could treasure and feel good about after watching it.

Lily Tomlin stars as Elle who has just gotten through breaking up with her girlfriend when Elle's granddaughter Sage unexpectedly shows up needing $600 bucks before sundown. Temporarily broke, Grandma Elle and Sage spend the day trying to get their hands on the cash as their unannounced visits to old friends and flames end up rattling skeletons and digging up secrets. Grandma packs 5 great performances by Tomlin, Judy Greer, Julia Garner, Marcia Gay Harden and Sam Elliott is also explored a very touching subject like abortion and even true love. It does have problems tho as a film some of the dialogue was kinda off sometimes and certain actors didn't do that much and they weren't that great to begin with such as John Cho and Nat Wolf other than that this was still a pretty great movie very dramatic, funny and even kinda badass at certain moments and i'm gonna give it an 7.5/10

Elle (Lily Tomlin) breaks up with her girlfriend of four months Olivia (Judy Greer). Elle is a feminist writer. She lost her college job and is flat broke. Then her granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) shows up. Sage is pregnant and needs money for the scheduled abortion later that day. The two women go on a quest. There is the idiot father of the baby, Elle's friends, her ex-husband Karl (Sam Elliott), and finally in desperation Sage's mother Judy (Marcia Gay Harden). The day-long odyssey uncovers past conflicts and family dysfunctions.These are wonderful women. They really inhabit these roles. Lily Tomlin is perfect and Julia Garner holds her own. There are plenty of outstanding supporting actor. Harden and Greer are wonderful. Sam Elliott shines in his one section. This has a breezy comedic tone within the tougher family drama. The laughs are small and could be bigger.

I find it funny that whenever a movie is about controversial subjects in which we have learned to have tolerance for, then it automatically gets great reviews from the critics. I guess none of them want to say the wrong thing and have groups protesting them. Therefore, if a movie is about the correct subject, it doesn't matter how low it's budget is or how bad the acting or direction is, it will still get great reviews. I am a little braver than that. This movie is about subjects that I hold dear to my heart and I agree with a lot of what it had to say, but I am going to be honest, it was a really poorly done movie. The writing was terrible...the directing was terrible...Julia Garner was terrible and the filming was terrible. It was like watching a high school auto visual class project. The only reason why I gave it two stars to begin with is because of the main subject matter and Lily Tomlin is one of my favorite actors. Yes, we need more movies about strong female role models and about a woman's rights and empowerment, but that doesn't mean every movie that comes along with this subject matter is a "home run". I think that they must have felt that there was no way this movie could fail, because the topic/s were so strong. If I asked anyone if they liked this movie, no one would have the stones to be honest. If I asked any man, they'd be afraid to say how crappy this movie was because they wouldn't want to offend women in general and if I asked any woman, they'd be afraid to say it was crappy because they would be too embarrassed to look weak and submissive. There is a lot of issues that needed to be addressed in this movie and were, but it was done poorly! I did not like the movie and I think that it might have hurt woman's rights more than help them! In conclusion: This move was a snore fest. The character development, acting and direction was terrible. I can not recommencement this to anyone.