"Greta," the new thriller about a young woman who befriends a lonely French widow, is a hot mess, and not in a good way. The film centers on Frances (Chloe Grace Moretz), a twenty-something living in Manhattan with her college friend Erica (Maika Monroe). One day, while on the subway, Frances comes across a green purse. While Erica suggests they keep it, and use the money found inside for colonics, Frances, being endowed with a higher sense of ethics, decides to return it to the owner, whose photo ID is found within. If only Frances's common sense were on par with her perception of right and wrong! Alas, that would be wishful thinking in a movie functioning with as little brain power as this one.
The owner of the purse, the titular Greta, is played by French actress Isabelle Huppert. Huppert is a well-respected performer, and an Oscar nominee. I am genuinely puzzled as to why she chose to star in this film. Perhaps she was eager to work with the director, Neil Jordan. Jordan is best known for writing and directing "The Crying Game," a movie from 1992 that won him the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Interesting, seeing as the script is the weakest element of "Greta."
The screenplay of "Greta" is co-written by Neil Jordan and Ray Wright. Its only semi-redeeming quality is the fact that the film lasts 98 minutes. I say "semi-redeeming," because even with that fairly short running time, the narrative feels unnecessarily stretched out and overlong. It is far easier to pin down what doesn't work about the writing. The dialogue is frequently juvenile and over-the-top. At one point, Frances and Erica have an in-depth discussion about the benefits of colon cleansing. Erica graphically details this procedure, including references to asparagus juice.Erica goes so far as to state that colon cleansing cured a friend's memory loss, a claim that, when made by an everyday individual (as opposed to a medical professional) seems, at best, far-fetched. The film is also filled with melodramatic proclamations such as: "People can't keep treating me like this," and "I deserve better service!" These statements are made by Greta to Frances in heated moments between the characters, and both are so laughable that they drain the movie of any sense of menace or danger, emotions that the viewer is clearly supposed to be feeling at these particular moments.
Beyond the issues with the dialogue, the script also fails to offer any real narrative exposition. The viewer never really learns any substantive information about Greta or Frances, and even less is known about Erica. This lack of important details results in characters that feel like cardboard cutouts, two dimensional and very superficial. Jordan and Wright's screenplay also makes the poor choice of developing the friendship between Frances and Greta at a lightning-quick speed. The two women meet, and then, in the next scene, they are inexplicably best friends. There is no explanation as to why Frances takes such a full liking to Greta so rapidly. Erica suggests at one point early on that Frances is merely attaching herself to a surrogate mother figure, but we (and Frances) know next to nothing about the older woman, so how could the protagonist possibly be that invested in Greta, for any reason? Their tight-knit bond defies narrative logic and explanation.
While the script is the lead offender, it is not the only component of "Greta" that results in a poor cinematic experience. The acting, especially from Huppert, tends to veer off into the unnecessarily melodramatic and campy. This is not that big of a problem for the first hour of the movie but, during the last thirty minutes or so, Huppert's acting choices result in a performance that is more silly than scary. To be fair, Huppert and the rest of the cast do the best they can with the material they've been given. As the saying goes: "If it's not on the page, it's not on the stage." The other aspect of the film that stands out like a sore thumb is the score. While there's nothing wrong with a film that's clearly a thriller utilizing music that has a dramatic quality to it, there does come a point when this type of sound starts to become a detriment to the affect it's trying to create. As with the acting, this issue is most glaring towards the end of the movie. When the narrative tries to build up the sense of tension, the score relies heavily on musical cues that scream to the viewer: "Watch out! Here comes a scary moment!" This technique tends to have the opposite effect than that intended by the filmmaker. Jordan and the composer would have been wise to accept that a little bit of ominous music can go a long way in creating the desired emotional response.
The best movie thrillers feature characters you care about and are invested in, so that when these people become engaged in perilous situations, you are genuinely concerned about what happens to them. Due in large part to the extremely weak script, I didn't really care what happened to Frances, because I didn't care about Frances. Ultimately, that's the pervading emotion I was left with after watching "Greta": disappointment that Jordan, Wright, and the rest of the creative team had made a film with such a slight emotional impact.