I honestly find a lot of joy in seeing laughably overqualified actors being in otherwise generic and junky movies. I’m not entirely sure why, but whereas some see a waste of good talent, I see potential to elevate thin material through presence and charisma alone. Sometimes the one thing that can separate a forgettable film from a genuinely compelling one is a single great performance from someone who has absolutely no business being in it.
That’s the best way I can really describe the new Neil Jordan film, Greta. It follows Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz), a girl from Boston who is still getting used to the hustle and bustle of New York after moving there to live with her best friend, Erica (Maika Monroe). But one night, she finds a purse in the subway, and returns it to its owner, Greta Hideg (Isabelle Huppert). They eventually form a friendship, but Frances realizes something is horribly wrong when she finds out Greta has a habit of leaving a purse on the subway, and getting the attention of unsuspecting good samaritans. She tries to cut Greta out of her life, but Greta has other plans in mind.
The film is very much in the vein of 90s stalker thrillers like Single White Female, Fear, and The Crush. It doesn’t seem very interested in subverting expectations, or playing with the tropes of the genre, or throwing you for a loop in any significant way. That might seem bad, but it manages to keep a good flow, a good sense of escalation, and some genuine tension is brought out. If you were to play things in a fairly straightforward way, the only way to ensure some success is having a solid handle behind the camera, a focus on performances, and of course, making sure it’s kept short and sweet.
Thankfully, Greta checks off all three of these. While Neil Jordan isn’t quite as impressive as a stylist here, he brings a workmanlike effectiveness to the proceedings. Plus, he doesn’t overstay his welcome, keeping everything at a swift and fast paced 98 minutes. Seamus McGarvey is the cinematographer, and he’s always been a reliable force. The way he plays with space and the grime of the streets, the building claustrophobia is really impressive. He creates a couple effective scares through the way he reveals information with the camera, and it all serves to add to the tension.
However, what ultimately makes this film are the performances. Again, none of these actors have any business being in a movie like this, and that goes double for the legendary French actress, Isabelle Huppert. I can’t complain much, though because she’s simply a blast to watch. She has a great screen presence that lulls you into a false sense of security before the crazy meter gets cranked up to 11, and when that does finally happen, it’s glorious.
Moretz and Monroe are also quite good here. You buy their friendship, they’re very likable, and they’re able to make an audience get in their headspace. Moretz’s character is still reeling from the loss of her mother, and is having a much harder time to move on like her father, Chris (Colm Feore). That sense of loss is what sparks that connection between her and Greta, who lost her husband, and lives alone while her daughter is supposedly living somewhere else. Monroe gets a surprising amount to do given how limiting the “main character’s best friend” type usually are in these kinds of movies. She gives the character a ton of charm and cheekiness to create a lasting impression, and she gets one hell of a payoff.
I wouldn’t argue that Greta is a great movie, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a rock solid one that gets all the necessary ingredients for this kind of movie just right. It does get silly, it does stretch your suspension of disbelief, but I found myself engaged every step of the way. It’s accomplishes everything it needs to, and I was equally thrilled and amused, which is probably what Neil Jordan and his co-writer, Ray Wright, were going for. There’s just enough details placed on the characters that allow yourselves to latch onto them, and get invested. It’s far from being one of Jordan’s best, but the work put in by him, and especially the energy and commitment that Huppert, Moretz, and Monroe put into the film, resulted in a very fun time at the movies.