- What: Greta
- Who: Directed by Neil Jordan. Starring Isabelle Huppert, Chloe Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe and Stephen Rea
- Rated: R
- Running time: 98 minutes
- When: Opens Friday
- Where: Area theatres
- Grade: C+
Greta looks good on paper, even great. Academy award-winning Irish director Neil Jordan, (1992, The Crying Game), iconic French leading lady Isabelle Huppert and promising young American actress Chloe Grace Moretz (The Equalizer, Susperia) combine for what should be a fruitful international enterprise in the suspense thriller genre.
But unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.
It’s partly the writing: The script, written by Jordan and Ray Wright, relies too heavily on tropes from this well-worn genre. The pacing is wrong and the plot peaks too early. Also, while Huppert is a superb actress by any standard, she doesn’t have requisite crazy quality this role demands.
A young naive girl from Boston (Moretz) has moved to New York with her college roommate. One day she finds a purse on the subway. She takes it home and discovers identification inside. She returns the purse to it’s owner named Greta. Greta is a French widow and piano teacher. Frances is still mourning the loss of her mother. The two lost souls in New York City seem to be a friendship made in heaven.
Slowly, Frances discovers that Greta is not what she seems. Not by a long shot. The plot thickens, then sickens.
Any way you slice, Greta it’s a misfire by a great director and cast. Too bad.
