Greta 2018

     Frances Cullen finds a designer woman’s handbag on the New York subway.  She takes it home and she’s thinking about returning the bag to the owner.  The owner’s name, address and phone number are inside the purse.  Erica Penn is living in a loft that her wealthy father bought for her when she graduated.  Erica and Frances are roommates.  Erica advises Frances to keep the bag?  Frances does return the bag to Greta and she learns that Greta is very lonely.  Frances’ mother has recently passed away and she feels the loss of her mother very deeply.  Frances and Greta begin to bond over their losses but Greta begins to take things too far. 

     The setting of this film is in New York but it was actually filmed in Ireland.  There were many times I was on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next!!  There are a LOT of twists and turns and suspense.  Most of the plot has been seen before but the direction and performances set it slightly above the norm.  4* (I really liked this movie) 

98 min, Drama directed by Neil Jordan with Isabelle Huppert, Chloe Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe, Jane Perry, Jeff Hiller, Parker Sawyers, Brandon Lee Sears, Arthur Lee, Rosa Escoda, Jessica Preddy, Thaddeus Daniels, Raven Dauda, Colm Feore, Zawe Ashton, Nagisa Morimoto.

Note:  Imdb 6* out of 10*, Rotten Tomatoes 60% critic 41% audience, Roger Ebert 2 ½* Matt Zoller Seitz, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Simran Hans, Common Sense Media Jeffrey M. Anderson, age 15+ 3* out of 5*, 1* positive 4* violence, 1* sex, 3* language, 1* consumerism, 1* drinking drugs, smoking, Amazon 3.7* out of 5* with 319 reviews, Letterboxd average rating 2.9* out of 5*, Metacritic 54 out of 100 with 42 critics ( 19 positive, 18 mixed, 5 negative) 5.8 out of 19 user scores with 66 reviews (26 positive, 30 mixed, 10 negative.  

Special Note:  Filmed in Dublin, Ireland; Toronto, Ontario, Canada and New York City, New York.  Greta’s last name is Hideg and this is Hungarian for cold.  Focus Features bought the distribution rights at the Toronto International Film Festival for $6 million.  The original title was to be The Window.  This is the second time Isabelle Huppert has played a piano teacher in a psychological thriller.  She was also in The Piano Teacher 2001.  The restaurant scenes were shot over a period of one week.  By the end of this week, the smell of fish was so bad on set that people were forced to leave early.  This film has grossed over $15.5 million worldwide.

Added Note:  During the 1980’s and 1990’s, many thrillers of this type were in theaters.  Some examples are Fatal Attraction, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Unlawful Entry, Cape Fear and Basic Instinct.  They are about regular normal people menaced by others that are not what they seem to be.  They have sympathetic aspects in their lives but there is much more going on under the surface.