MOVIE OF THE WEEK (3/1/19): GRETA
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| "Now I don't have to shoplift this from Bloomingdale's!" Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz) finds an unsuspecting handbag on the subway that will forever change her life in a scene from writer/director Neil Jordan's thriller GRETA. Credit: Shane Mahood / Focus Features. © 2019 Focus Features. All rights reserved. |
WATCH THE TRAILER(S) HERE:
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Isabella Huppert, Chloë Grace Moretz and Maika Monroe with Colm Feore
DIRECTOR(S): Neil Jordan
DIRECTOR(S): Neil Jordan
WEB SITE: http://www.focusfeatures.com/greta
THE BACK STORY: Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz), a Boston transplant now living in New York City with her much more street-smart and stereotypically millennial, smart-phone addicted friend Erica (Maika Monroe), is a nice girl. She's also extremely naïve and innocent, especially doe-eyed in the wake of the death of her mother and resulting prickly relationship with her father (Colm Feore). Thus, when she is riding the subway home from her demanding restaurant job – complete with a boss who couldn't care less about her than he does making any paying customer happy in true New York movie fashion – and finds a handbag, she must pick it up and return it to its owner: Greta Hardig (Isabella Huppert).
Wouldn't you know it? Greta is a widower who's daughter is away in Paris, which is one of the reasons she never gets to speak to her. Happy to make a new friend in Frances, who is happy to have a new mother-like figure in her life, Greta takes a liking to the young lady in what seems to be a mutually beneficial friendship.
Then Frances discovers a secret about Greta and her bags (it's not a spoiler, it's in the trailer) and that's when things get iffy. And as Frances comes to learn, Greta is not going anywhere anytime soon – especially since she knows her new friend needs a good mother in her life.
Wouldn't you know it? Greta is a widower who's daughter is away in Paris, which is one of the reasons she never gets to speak to her. Happy to make a new friend in Frances, who is happy to have a new mother-like figure in her life, Greta takes a liking to the young lady in what seems to be a mutually beneficial friendship.
Then Frances discovers a secret about Greta and her bags (it's not a spoiler, it's in the trailer) and that's when things get iffy. And as Frances comes to learn, Greta is not going anywhere anytime soon – especially since she knows her new friend needs a good mother in her life.
THE REVIEW: Some movies are what can only be dubbed as "talk to the screen classics." These are the type of movies you usually would see a stand-up comedian making fun of during his or her set, particularly if seeing the movie with an urban (read: black. I'm black. I know what I'm talking about. Is that something a non-person of color couldn't say without potential backlash? Possibly. Do I care? Nope.) audience. Why pray tell? Because when you have a movie that tries to toe the line between serious thriller and giving in to its own cheesy nature at times, you're gonna get a movie where you're going to want to talk to the screen not so much for the characters' sake, but those of the people you came with – and Greta is best enjoyed with a good friend like the one Moretz's character has in Monroe's – to let them know you know you are both experiencing the same insane experience and it's ok.
A B-movie where the acting is either terribly perfect or perfectly terribly (your choice), Greta is hokey yet hilarious, dumb yet defined and energetic while inducing eye rolling. Moretz is so good at being an innocent victim with a character that is the embodiment of the idiom "No good deed goes unpunished" that some audiences may root for her while others salivate at the prospect of her potential demise. Likewise, Huppert is so good at bringing her "Hey Kathy Bates – you thought Misery was something? Check this out!" older female antagonist to the screen audiences may once again be split on who they are rooting for by the film's end.
Throw in Monroe's so-annoying-yet-so-excellent-because-she-is-playing-that-girl-we've-all-seen-working-at-a-retail-store-while-incessantly-chatting-about-some-party-she's-going-to-as-if-she-were-a-reality-tv-star performance and Greta – which of course tries to answer some of its plot holes cleverly before humorously not making up for others – is a ribald, raucous tale that while very familiar feels fresh ... enough. As long as you know what you're getting into, you'll enjoy Greta – or at least you should more than Frances will ...
A B-movie where the acting is either terribly perfect or perfectly terribly (your choice), Greta is hokey yet hilarious, dumb yet defined and energetic while inducing eye rolling. Moretz is so good at being an innocent victim with a character that is the embodiment of the idiom "No good deed goes unpunished" that some audiences may root for her while others salivate at the prospect of her potential demise. Likewise, Huppert is so good at bringing her "Hey Kathy Bates – you thought Misery was something? Check this out!" older female antagonist to the screen audiences may once again be split on who they are rooting for by the film's end.
Throw in Monroe's so-annoying-yet-so-excellent-because-she-is-playing-that-girl-we've-all-seen-working-at-a-retail-store-while-incessantly-chatting-about-some-party-she's-going-to-as-if-she-were-a-reality-tv-star performance and Greta – which of course tries to answer some of its plot holes cleverly before humorously not making up for others – is a ribald, raucous tale that while very familiar feels fresh ... enough. As long as you know what you're getting into, you'll enjoy Greta – or at least you should more than Frances will ...
OVERALL RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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