Image: Isabelle Huppert and Chloe Grace Moretz in Greta. Source: NBC Universal.
Netflix has made a huge impact on the way we watch movies, and not just in the obvious “now we don’t have to leave home” sense. Thanks to a business model that’s built around keeping people watching for as long as possible, Netflix is increasingly focused on content that, for want of a better term, drags things out.
It’s most obvious in their series – why make a snappy eight-part show when a bloated 13-part one will keep people around longer? – but it’s an attitude that’s increasingly obvious in their movie-length content (remember Bird Box?). Plot developments are sign-posted, then become obvious, then there’s another scene or two, then they finally happen. The whole idea is to keep audiences just engaged enough to stay watching without moving the story forward any faster than strictly necessary.
All of which makes Greta, an otherwise fairly predictable slice of 80s-era psycho stalker cheese, a strong and refreshing breath of fresh air. The Crying Game director Neil Jordan (back behind the camera for the first time since 2012’s Byzantium) isn’t reinventing the wheel. From the moment Frances (Chloe Grace Moretz) finds a bag left behind on the New York subway and decides to track down the owner, it’s obvious that no good will come from her good deed.
Still, for a few minutes it seems like Greta (Isabelle Huppert) is who she says she is – a lonely French piano teacher whose daughter lives in Paris. Frances is still getting over the recent death of her mother so this new friendship seems ideal, despite the scepticism of her flatmate and best friend (Maika Munroe).
The stage seems set for a slow burn as the audience gets to tally up the ways Greta seems just a little off, while Frances sleepwalks into danger. Instead, Frances quickly discovers the missing handbag was basically a lure (as in fishing) and tries to cut Greta out of her life. So we’re going to get a lengthy series of drawn-out scenes as Frances tries to convince everyone that the kindly Greta is really a threat? Nope: her flatmate agrees right away, Frances’ restaurant workmates are soon on side, and even the police don’t take long to see she has a point.
The twists and turns that follow aren’t that surprising – there’s even the cliché of a private eye (Stephen Rea) who gets involved then promptly gets in over his head. But Jordan (who also co-wrote the script) never lets the pace slow or the tension slacken. Whenever the story seems to level out, there’s something thrown into the mix to unsettle; at one point there’s some startling gore, another scene turns out to have been a dream, and Huppert – who is clearly having a lot of fun with her role even as she underplays a lot of the nuttiness – gets a great moment where she goes from perfectly reasonable restaurant customer to shouting and flipping tables without blinking an eye.
Moretz has the thankless role in all this of being the reasonable, rational one, constantly put in danger. But it’s her performance that makes this film work. She’s constantly convincing as a small town girl just that little bit out of her depth, totally committed to her character from the top of her not-at-all stylish haircut to the soles of her sensible shoes. She’s someone you don’t want to see get hurt and if a thriller has that, all bets are off.
| 3.5 stars |
★★★☆
|
Greta
Director: Neil Jordan
USA, 2019, 1hr 38min
Distributor: Universal
Rated: MA 15+
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