Director
Neil Jordan
(THE CRYING GAME, BREAKFAST ON PLUTO, THE BRAVE ONE)

Stars
Isabelle Huppert, Chloë Grace Moretz and Maika Monroe

Ask yourself this, what is the decision you would most likely opt for when discovering a handbag has been left on the seat of a train during your commute home? Would you:

a) Not really give a hoot and leave it be?
b) Leave it, but notify the authorities of the potentially suspicious baggage on board the train?
c) Take possession of the bag and hand it in to authorities?
d) Take it and keep the bag along with its contents?
e) Take the bag, search its contents and upon finding the owner’s identification and address inside, kindly pay them a visit to return what’s theirs?

The latter of these options is what our protagonist, a kind-hearted but naive young waitress named Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz), chooses before exiting the train after a shift at the fine dining restaurant she works at. The recipient and owner of the handbag, a lonely and rather eccentric widowed woman named Greta (played by marvellous French actress Isabelle Huppert), gratefully accepts the very honest act of kindness and invites Frances inside her home for a beverage. Quite quickly, the two women warm to one another and become good friends. But during a visit at Greta’s home one evening, Frances makes a disturbing discovery that uncovers a sinister side to her new friend, which emerges as she begins to back away from the friendship.

I’m not sure about you, but option e would have decidedly been my last pick all along. As such, GRETA has its improbabilities stacked up against it right from the beginning. But let’s be honest – option e probably enables this film to conjure up more thrills and hair-raising fun, right? Well, for about an hour or so, yes. During this time, GRETA’s consistent pace and Isabelle Huppert’s wicked performance do just enough to generate a moderate level of disconcerting fun and forthcoming chills. Huppert’s timing and precision in introducing the darker dimensions of her character are particularly pleasurable to watch. But not long after Frances discovers that Greta is carrying “excess baggage”, much of the enjoyment derived from watching GRETA rapidly wares off. At a certain point in this film, the realisation that this screenplay is alluding to having something more than what is there, and what it is crying out for too, abruptly arrives. The earlier transparency of the plot and its characters’ motives later prove to be mostly as expected and further proceedings grow more and more implausible. In fact, GRETA is so silly and kooky at times, it is unintentionally funny. Then, when it suddenly and sporadically gets into a darkly comical mood, its unevenness is exposed. Before GRETA even ends, you just wish that Frances had gone for pick a.

So, after reading this review, which option will you be selecting?

a) Screw you, Moviedoc, I’m seeing GRETA at the movies regardless!
b) Cheers, Moviedoc, I’ll wait until I can watch GRETA at home.
c) Thanks, Moviedoc, I’ll give GRETA a miss altogether.

2 stars

Viewer Discretion
MA15+ (Strong injury detail)

Trailer
GRETA

Moviedoc thanks Universal for the invite to the screening of this film.

Opens nationally on Feb 28

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc
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