Greta * *

 

Here's to another stinker on our respective Resume's. Cheers!

     I'm not one of those people who thinks a film will be good just because Isabelle Huppert is in it.  Indeed, sometimes I find myself asking the question - if she is so good at drama how come she can't pick a bad script when it is sent to her? I've seen Izzy do some great films (Elle), but I've also seen her do some lame ducks, such as the execrable Things To Come.
      Her performance in this is okay, but I don't know why she agreed to it, same with Chloe Grace Moretz.
      The unimaginative and tired scenario is about a nut-case lady, Greta (Isabelle Huppert) who is obviously mad from the start and ends up confirming what we already know.
       She likes to lock up young women in a secret chamber in her apartment. (Hardly a spoiler, it's in the trailers and everything else).
       Her entrapment strategy is to leave a handbag on the train and then wait for some honest soul to return it to her.  Transit lost and found must be sick of calling her but they don't explain that bit.  We have to assume that everyone who finds the handbag will be a pretty young girl who will actually go to Greta's home to return it.
      Chloe Grace Moretz plays Francis, a naive young girl who finds Greta's latest bait.  Francis is new in New York and lives with her more experienced flat mate who discourages Francis from going to see Greta.
        After establishing contact a few weeks of friendship follows, before Francis starts to get the heebie-jeebies about Greta and quits seeing her.  Greta then turns into a full blown stalker, bothering Francis at work, sending her hundreds of text messages, endlessly haranguing her.
        It's an inconsistent script with many illogical, conflicting, and daftly exaggerated situations and explanations, which fortunately are played with some dark humour.  At least I think they were trying to be funny. Gosh! I hope so. I'd hate to think I was laughing inappropriately at the grand dame of acting.
      Anyway one thing leads to another and eventually to...... dah dah!.... the closet.
      Compared to many other "locked-up by a psycho" films it's a bit tame and not particularly scary or exciting. Partly because its so silly.
      I don't know what's going on with writer/director Neil Jordan.  He gave us the brilliant The Crying Game over twenty years ago and hasn't done anything to match it since. This one won't either.