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Greta
Ireland / USA 2018
produced by Lawrence Bender, James Flynn, Sidney Kimmel, John Penotti, Mei Han (executive), Brian Kornreich (executive), Richard D. Lewis (executive), Peter Luo (executive) for Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Lawrence Bender Productions, Little Wave Productions
directed by Neil Jordan
starring Isabelle Huppert, Chloë Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe, Jane Perry, Jeff Hiller, Parker Sawyers, Brandon Lee Sears, Arthur Lee, Rosa Escoda, Jessica Preddy, Thaddeus Daniels, Raven Dauda, Colm Feore, Zawe Ashton, Nagisa Morimoto, Navi Dhanoa, Elisa Berkeley, Stephen Rea
story by Ray Wright, screenplay by Ray Wright, Neil Jordan, music by Javier Navarrete
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Frances (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a young woman who's almost a bit too
innocent for living in New York City. And as such, when she finds a
handbag sitting alone in the subway with an ID inside, she decides to
return it to the owner - Greta (Isabelle Huppert), a lonely widow who's
suffering from the fact that her daughter has left for Paris. Now Frances
herself has only recently lost her mother, so she can totally sympathize
with the old lady, and soon adopts her as something like a surrogate
mother - until she finds a dozen or so handbags in one of Greta's
wardrobes, looking identical like the one she found in the subway, all
with identical content and each with a different name taped to its bottom
- one of course with Frances' name. Frances is deeply disturbed by this,
gets out of Greta's place under a pretext, and then tries to break off all
contact with her. But Greta's not one to let "loved ones" go
that easily, so first she phones and texts her incessantly, and when that
doesn't work, shows up at the restaurant Frances works. And even when
Frances explains why she doesn't want to have anything to do with Greta
anymore, Greta won't let that wash, and she starts terrorizing her, like
waiting out of the restaurant Frances works at in plain sight, stalking
Greta's roommate Erica (Maika Monroe) just to show she can, and at one
point actually creating a scene at the restaurant that gets her into
police custody. Meanwhile, Frances finds out that Greta's daughter whom
she talks about all the time has died 4 years ago and has shown signs of
physical abuse. Greta is supposed to have left the country then to her
native Hungary (not France, as she never tires to claim) - but of course,
Frances knows this is not true. So she decides to go on a little trip to
forget about everything - which she tells Greta just to calm her down ...
and on the eve of her departure, she breaks down from a drugged drink, and
Greta picks her up, takes her home with herself, and locks her into a toy
box, just like she has always locked her own daughter away. Finally having
Frances as her prisoner, she starts abusing her both physically and
mentally, in the meantime sending those closest to Frances, her dad (Colm
Feore) and Erica, messages from Greta's phone that she's on holiday with
the respective other. So that gives Greta a head start, but of course they
find out eventually and leave nothing untried to track Greta down - but
that's easier said than done, as she's good at hiding, and even manages to
take care of a private investigator (Stephen Rea) they send after her. But
the problem is, Greta eventually gets tired of Frances, and Greta has ways
of getting rid of people ... A slowburn thriller that tells a
really creepy story via expert build-up and in rich imagery - but it's
really the actors who carry the movie, a first rate cast who are all given
enough room by the director to bring their (well-written) characters to
life and make them their own - which is what gives Greta that extra
something: Isabelle Huppert is allowed to play Greta not just as a psycho
but someone with needs, while Chloe Grace Moretz might seem to innocent
for NYC but she's not one without faults - which makes both women
relatable and suspends the pure good-vs-evil dichonomy until the third
act. Well worth a look to be sure.
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