Greta

Remember that glorious era at the tail end of the 80's and the start of the 90's when we got a raft of psycho dramas that played into our greatest fears, that our own homes, our sanctuary's weren't safe, that new friends were never exactly what they seemed. Stuff like The Hand That Rocked The Cradle, Pacific Heights, Unlawful Entry, Single White Female and so on. They were deadly weren't they. Film's that while ultimately ridiculous, really struck a nerve and are still fondly remembered nearly 30 years ago. Greta, from director Neil Jordan, will instantly remind you of that cinematic era. It's delivers all the fun of those films while dragging along the sillier parts too.

Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz) is a young woman trying to find her way in New York City after the death of her mother. She's living with her friend Erica (Maika Monroe) and working a waitressing job while she figures out what's next on her path. One day she finds a leather handbag on the subway ride home and being a kind soul decides to return it to it's owner, a lonely older French woman called Greta (Isabelle Huppert). What starts off as an innocent friendship soon descends into a hellish slice of obsession and terror.

This was a highly entertaining watch. Now it's not a fun one cos poor Frances has an awful time of it but a compelling and fast moving plot supported by two excellent performances means your attention will never stray from the screen. It's a story we've seen dozens of times over, especially back in the 90's, but it's really well done and wastes no time in getting right to the heart of proceedings.The word slow burn doesn't exist in Jordan's dojo, he knows we know what to expect from this story so he doesn't make us wait for things to go wrong.  And oh man do they go wrong. 

It starts with little things, too many phone calls, a touch of neediness, a flick through facebook and before you know it people are being chased and terrified in the very best tradition of the psychological thriller. It reaches a fever pitch of madness that will have you chewing the knuckles off yourself ............if you can get past a few very silly lapses in logic and one particular plot point that will leave your eyes rolling in your head. Like I mentioned earlier, it has both the good and the bad of those 90's classics but what might have been overlooked back them just doesn't stand up to the more savvy audiences of now. Luckily Isabelle Huppert puts in such a good shift most people won't care about the silliness.

She's so good. She's one of those actors who excels at whatever she tries. Your abiding memory of her role here will be her sitting alone in a high class restaurant wearing a pair of shades that make her look positively demonic as she demurely tries to rip a life apart while supping on a dry cabernet. She's having a whale of a time, whether she's dancing around a victim or doing mean things with chewing gum. I just love seeing performers of her calibre letting loose. Moretz does good work too, and here she puts all memory of her Hitgirl role from the Kick-Ass movies behind her with a compelling and believable performance as a young woman just trying to fill the mammy shaped hole in her life. Her role as the blonde haired heroine of the piece gives the film a bit of a Hitchcock feel that's only magnified by an appearance from Neil Jordan's buddy Stephen Rea as an Arbogast-like investigator who gets called in when things go bad.

It's been six years since Neil Jordan's last film (the superb Byzantium) and I hope we don't have to wait that long for his next. He always does well in genre work so hopefully his next will be along the same lines. But the main reason to see this is Isabelle Huppert who does unhinged so well. You won't be able to take your eyes off her. It's no coincidence her character's name is an anagram of what Huppert is. (Groan)

In cinemas now.