Review: Greta
There's absolutely nothing wrong with trashy films, especially when they're done right and as enjoyably bonkers as Neil Jordan's Greta. Starring Isabelle Huppert and Chloë Grace Moretz, the campy B-picture fits very much in Jordan's wheelhouse, adding another entry into his oeuvre of adult fables.
It begins with a bag. It is green and obviously expensive and is first seen sitting all by its lonesome on a New York City subway seat. It may not contain a ticking time bomb but, as Frances (Moretz) will soon discover, ticking time bombs come in other forms, namely that of one Greta Hideg (Huppert), the owner of said bag. At first, Greta appears a harmless lady, whose life has been marked by loss. "They are with you and then they're gone, the ones we love," Greta tells the young woman, who takes the older woman's words to heart; after all, she has recently lost her mother and is feeling especially vulnerable. The pair bond over their shared loneliness and begin spending more and more time together, much to the confusion of Frances' friend and roommate Erica (Maika Monroe), who bluntly tells her that it's weird that she's made some random lady her surrogate mother.
When Frances discovers a host of other handbags bearing names and phone numbers, including Frances' own, in Greta's cabinet, she immediately cuts ties with Greta. However, Greta will not be ignored, bombarding Frances with texts and voice messages, standing outside the restaurant in which Frances works (and eventually causing a commotion when she comes to dine as a paying customer), and stalking both Frances and Erica. As Erica notes, "The crazier they are, the harder they cling." Yet, just when one thinks that Greta is another variation of Fatal Attraction meets Single White Female, the film goes completely off the rails in the best way, turning into darker and crazier corners, and providing a series of WTF moments in its last half that unsettle, ratchet up the tension, and entertain.
Huppert has a ball - overturning tables, pirouetting by a dead body, using a syringe to numb the stump of a chopped off finger. She employs her cool deadpan to absolutely chilling effect, yet somehow manages to convey how Greta's loneliness has curdled into deadly desperation. Moretz expresses Frances' rising paranoia and hysterical fear effectively, whilst Monroe steals a scene or two with her spiky delivery. The plotting may not necessarily hold up, but Jordan has put together a tremendously good potboiler which, despite what one may think about the genre, is easier said than done.
Greta
Directed by: Neil Jordan
Written by: Ray Wright, Neil Jordan
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Chloë Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe, Colm Feore, Stephen Rea, Zawe Ashton
