Greta ★★★
ISABELLE Huppert’s latest performance in the thriller Greta may not be among her best, but it’s still aggressively entertaining.
This suspense thriller with horror elements again showcases the incredible range Huppert has displayed for decades and the bravery of her acting choices.
In 2001 she shocked fans with the award-winning and provocative turn as a masochistic, repressed spinster in The Piano Teacher while in 2016 she was part of the festival critic-fuelled backlash for her rape-obsessed character in enfant terrible director Paul Verhoeven’s fascinating and troubling Elle.
Greta is again a brave choice but it’s also a fairly safe one in which she has obvious fun as an unhinged stalker of a younger woman.
It’s the type of film that Brian De Palma might have made in the 1990s, although he would of course have upped the eroticism.
But with Irish veteran director Neil Jordan at the helm, the Hitchcockian approach is more in the building of suspense through script, small details and deft camera choices.
Joining Huppert in the fun are two good young actresses – Chloë Grace-Moretz and the lesser-known Maika Monroe.
Both have previously dabbled in horror, Grace-Moretz in a trio of remakes, last year’s sadly ignored Suspira, 2013’s Carrie and Let Me In from 2010, and Monroe in the break-out hit It Follows and The Guest, both from 2014.
Frances (Grace-Moretz) and Erika (Monroe) live together in a New York loft apartment owned by Erika’s father. Both struggle to make ends meet and spend much time together.
On her way home from work at a high-end restaurant one night Frances discovers a handbag accidentally left on a subway seat. Much to Erika’s annoyance she decides to return the bag to the owner.
At a small but cosy ground floor home off a city back street she is greeted by the elegantly French Greta. Frances, who is still getting over the death of her mother and Greta, a widow whose daughter is living overseas, form an immediate bond.
With Erika’s warnings ringing in her ears, Frances allows the relationship to build, taking Greta on a shopping trip for a dog, accompanying her on long strolls in the park, teaching her how to use new technology and joining her at home for a meal.
It is during a home-cooked and candle-lit dinner that Frances learns something about Greta that leads her to push the older woman away…but the dangerous Greta has other ideas.
Neil Jordan, who is incidentally from my family’s home town of Sligo, knows how to deliver an engaging story and piece of entertainment. His impressive list of credits includes The Company of Wolves and Mona Lisa in the 1980s, The Crying Game from 1992, which features one of the great surprise reveals in cinema history, Interview With A Vampire from 1994 and possibly his best. Michael Collins from ’96.
While Jordan’s recent output hasn’t been as strong, Greta is a return to some form, thanks to both his assured direction and the lively script he co-wrote with horror writer Ray Wright (The Crazies and Case 39).
His trio of on-screen talent, led by the eminently watchable Huppert, elevate what could have been a fairly slight thriller into a constantly enjoyable one.
With more word of mouth this film could be a minor hit.