Let me start by saying "Greta" was the one experience that went off this weekend, without a hitch. Isabelle Huppert is hoot in the title role, and brings a dose of comedy to psychosis I have never seen to this degree before, in this type of very predictable film.
For those in the know, Greta is a distant cousin of Annie Wilkes. A former nurse, who is dismissed for tinkering too much with drugs, Greta, nonetheless has a stash in her place, and uses it to her advantage.
Greta is pathologically lonely. Her gimmick is to leave pretty bags, on the subway, with a driver's license, and lure the unsuspected to her place, befriend them--and refuse to let them go. She delivers some great lines--"Everyone needs a friend," No one leaves Greta," Just try to get rid of Greta," with chills and humor. Yet the filmmakers could not decide on the tag line. The first one is used in the poster, the second in the trailer, and the last goes unused. Which shows the film has some problems.
Chloe Grace Moretz plays a naive young girl, new to the city. But not too new, she and her roommate/friend Erica Penn (Maika Monroe, who livens things up, especially as the film breezes into the climax) are both Smith graduates, and so Erica's father can spring for a sumptuous loft in downtown Tribeca. It is important Neil Jordan lets us know that, because we who live in New York know, all too well, that two such young ladies never could afford a pad like that on their own. Frances McCullen (Moretz) works waiting tables at one of these trendy downtown night spots, Going home, she finds one of Greta's bags on the subway, takes it home, and intends to return it to her. Erika, smart girl, tries to warn her this is not a good idea, but Frances goes ahead, anyway, as Greta kindly invites her in, offering coffee and cookies, playing the piano, displaying a loss and loneliness she allegedly copes with--loss of dog, loss of husband, and daughter.
But are things really as they seem? The friendship between the two blossoms, until, one night, while dining at Greta's, Frances finds a cabinet full of the exact same bags. Some have names and phone numbers attached. Frances finds hers and realizes--she is one of a series of passer bys through Greta's life, who, when they are no longer useful or too questioning, end up wrapped in the basement. When Frances goes down there, she finds one other girl, Samantha, dead and decomposing.
At this point, Huppert ramps up the psychosis, emerging as a dangerous but comic, mix, like Julia Child on speed!!!!!!!!!! The highlight is the pirouette she does after murdering Stephen Rea, in the thankless role of a detective tracking the mystery of Greta, who loses his life to her.
The ending, involving a locked box and someone trying to break out, is both comic and precious. Will the box break open? Will there be a "Greta 2?" Only time will tell.
The film is full of holes. Greta, with Frances' help, buys a sweet rescue dog, named Morton, whom it is my impression she kills. Frances learns that Greta's daughter, Nicola, was a member of AA, and her sponsor says she never went to Paris, and was ultimately driven to kill herself, after years of abuse from Greta. An abuse eventually inflicted on Frances. Which leaves me to question the husband--did she lose him, or did she cause the loss?
Yet somehow Isabelle Huppert makes Greta an almost sympathetic figure, a person trapped in her own loneliness, but lacking the mental stability to escape it. Believe me, there are Gretas out there. I suggest you spend your time with Isabelle's performance, darlings, and not the real thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Greta" is a film that cannot make up its mind whether it wants to be camp, or art, hovering between the two, never succeeding at either. Supposedly set in New York, it wasn't a New York I knew. That is because I found out the film was shot in Ireland!
Faith an' begorra, darlin's!!!!!!!!! But Isabelle is a riot! You have to see this for her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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