“Greta” is a film directed by Neil Jordan and was written by him and Ray Wright. Isabelle Huppert plays the title role who stalks the fragile, sensitive Frances, played by Chloe Grace Moretz. Frances is living in New York with her more assertive friend, Erica, played by Maika Monroe. Erica could have been a little more annoying as is usually the case in these types of movies, but she really ended up being rather likeable. She gets even more important as the movie foes along.
The performances were solid and convincing even if some of the character motivations fall a little short of that sometimes. This is one of those films where the cast really delivers something pretty enjoyable in spite of a few shortcomings in the writing. The writing isn’t necessarily bad, but there were still not as many surprises or originality as I would have liked. Huppert does come off as rather creepy in spite of her rather matronly appearance. Stephen Rea and Colm Feore help round out the main cast and as expected hold up their parts quite well. These are two very experienced and busy guys, and their participation in this particular piece certainly validates why they show up so often.
I would be interested to see more of Maika Monroe’s work though. I have seen quite a bit of Moretz recently and she does fine playing off the obviously more experienced Huppert.
The movie starts off with Frances finding a handbag on the subway and tries to do the right thing by bringing it to its owner, Greta. However it appears that it was a trap since Greta is dangerously desperate for companionship. She would apparently leave handbags all over the subways as lures for unsuspecting Good Samaritans. I have a little trouble that even someone as nuts as Greta would take a chance like that since anyone could show up at her door whose intentions are less trustworthy than hers. That could have been more interesting movie, in fact. Two psychos trying to out-crazy each other. That seems even more absurd, but I would love to see someone write that.
It’s still ended up being a pretty good movie in spite of the cracks in believability.
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