Film Review: Greta

"I Think There's Something You Need To Know About Greta..."

In a year stuffed with superheroes, sequels and the reprise of extended franchises, once in a while a particular film comes along which sticks its' neck out and screams something along the lines of, "and how, here's for something completely different." In the case of Greta, the latest from Interview with the Vampire and Byzantium director, Neil Jordan, such a film can immediately be considered as a glorious slice of B-movie nastiness, a stalker-based, chiller-thriller which although sticks wholly between the genre field posts without offering anything exactly new to a very well-worn narrative, is powered primarily by two superb central performances who in their attempts to add a sense of seriousness to the silliness, propel the movie into a unashamedly tickly guilty pleasure. With the likes of the excellent and little seen Burning earlier this year proving how the Hitchcock template of minimalistic tension continues to work wonders within contemporary cinema, Jordan's movie evades such delicacies and heads straight into Cronenberg-esque levels of eerie, off-kilter madness, and whilst Greta isn't exactly the mainstream option for those not bothered with intergalactic superhero warfare, is still a movie with more than enough to enjoy, or for those more on the squeamish scale of humanity, at least endure. 

Based around a story from Case 39 and The Crazies screenwriter, Ray Wright, Greta follows Chloë Grace Moretz (Suspiria) as Frances McCullen, a grieving young waitress who after the sudden death of her mother has come to live with her best friend, Maika Monroe's (It Follows) fitness obsessed, Erica, in the heart of New York City. Attempting to keep afloat her strained relationship with her absent father as she goes, Frances suddenly begins a blossoming friendship with the titular Greta, a lonely, longing and seemingly upper class French woman who herself is suffering from an absent relationship with her estranged daughter, and whilst the world is rife with actors and actresses who may have done an excellent job with such a role, there is only one person to turn to when a filmmaker needs an ambiguous French femme fetale; Isabelle Huppert. After her barnstorming performance in Paul Verhoeven's rather memorable, Elle, the train to the Isabelle Huppert love-in has well and truly been boarded, and with a central performance which expertly balances comedy with shocktastic horror, her ability to make the most of what is a rather generic thriller plot, pushes Greta into another gear completely and partially covers over the glaringly obvious narrative weaknesses. Add into the mix set pieces which will make even the sternest genre fans gulp with shock, Jordan's latest is no means a classic, but for those after something a slightly bit different, Greta is solid, squeamish stuff with an excellent central relationship between two top-notch actors. 

Overall Score: 6/10