Logan Sork Film Reviews
Greta
The “someone meets a person who seems wholesome and nice but turns out is actually unstable and insane” plot is nothing new and has been seen in film several times over the past couple of decades. With Greta director Neil Jordan attempts to craft a psychological thriller keen on keeping the audience on the edge of their seats as the friendship between these two women begins to spiral out of control. Unfortunately, the only thing the audience will want to do is leave their seats, as Greta can’t overcome it’s by the numbers plot, uninspired direction, logical gaps and terrible characters, resulting in a movie that is truly awful.
Greta is written and directed by Neil Jordan and stars Chloe Grace Moretz and Isabell Huppert. The film follows Frances (Moretz), a young naïve college girl who is living in New York with her friend. One day while on the subway, she finds a purse and, rather than keeping it, decides to return it to the owner. She finds that the owner is Greta (Huppert), an older French woman living a lonely life in her apartment. As the two talk, they begin to form a friendship, with Frances saying Greta is like a mother to her. While things seemingly start off normal, Frances begins to notice a change in Greta’s behavior over time, with her inability to leave Frances behind resulting in several strange moments. As Frances tries to escape, Greta is willing to do anything to keep this toxic friendship alive no matter what harm befouls Frances.
As far as thrillers are concerned, there is a surprisingly little about of genuine thrills to be found in this film. Part of the reason is that the film plays it safe and doesn’t really try anything new when it comes to the “normal person becomes friend with a person who turns out is actually crazy” plot we’ve seen countless times beforehand. Rather than have fun with the concept and try to be silly, the film takes itself way too seriously, resulting in a lot of time being spent trying to make the film have a deeper meaning than it actually does. And don’t get me wrong, there is a nice attempt to make the story about something deeper, but when you suddenly go from a serious character drama to full on thriller/horror this jarring tonal shift can result in some unintentionally hilarious moments. Neil Jordan also contributes to the lack of thrills as his direction isn’t strong enough to get you on the edge of your seat when it tries. There’s a chase sequence in the film that was so lazy that it literally happens on a phone, which is far from the thrilling chase it could’ve been.
The screenplay also asks the audience to overlook far too many gaps in logic for the film to be taken seriously. There are several things that Great does early on in the film that would hint that she is unstable and would result in the authorities getting involved to some extent. Instead however, all the authority figures in the film (whether it be police officers or private investigators) are shown to be either extremely incompetent or not being able to get involved because there are “legal boundaries”. And by “legal boundaries”, I mean imaginary rules invented by the screen writer to keep the movie going, because there are several moments clear as day in which Greta gets physically violent in front of several witnesses that would result in her being detained by the authorities. Of course, that’s not the only thing that the writers ask the audience to ignore, as there are one or two twists thrown in that come out of nowhere with no set up what so ever. It feels as if they couldn’t decide how to end the movie and just tacked on a twist ending and asked the audience to just go with it, resulting in a quick graceless exit from the film.
Of course, if the plot and logic weren’t all that good, surely the characters will be well developed and interesting to offset the other problems of the film, right? Well unfortunately, much like the film itself, the characters are thin, illogical and all around unlikeable. Now to be fair, the actors in each perspective role do a fine job, with Huppert really stealing the show and bringing some much-needed fun to the film. But aside from that, I could hardly find any reason to route for our main character. The writers try to make Frances this nice lovable girl in order to make her seem relatable, but in doing so make her look like an idiot most of the time. Aside from the fact that she should’ve left Greta the moment she found out she was crazy, there are several moments in the film where the right decision is presented directly in front of her and she decides to make the worst possible decision. The other characters, including the friend and father, are also extremely unlikable, and when you mix this many unlikable characters with a story that isn’t good and some uninspired direction, the result is anything but satisfying.
I went in with extremely low expectations and still left disappointed. Greta is truly one of the worst movies I’ve seen so far this year. While there are one or two decent performances, the uninspired direction, bland story, lack of thrills and logic and unlikeable characters make this film a truly unpleasant viewing experience. Let’s hope this film inspires the people who do see it to lock it away in a box so that no one will ever have to see it again (yes that was a spoiler, but who cares at this point).
2.5/10