Greta (2018 film)

Greta
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Neil Jordan
Screenplay by	Ray Wright Neil Jordan
Story by	Ray Wright
Produced by	Sidney Kimmel John Penotti James Flynn Lawrence Bender Karen Richards
Starring	Isabelle Huppert Chloë Grace Moretz Maika Monroe Colm Feore Stephen Rea
Cinematography	Seamus McGarvey
Edited by	Nick Emerson
Music by	Javier Navarrete
Production companies	Sidney Kimmel Entertainment Showbox Starlight Culture Entertainment Group Screen Ireland Lawrence Bender Productions Metropolitan Films Little Wave Productions
Distributed by	Focus Features
Release dates	6 September 2018 (2018-09-06) (TIFF) 1 March 2019 (2019-03-01) (United States) 19 April 2019 (2019-04-19) (Ireland)
Running time	98 minutes
Countries	United States Ireland
Language	English
Box office	$18.7 million

Greta is a 2018 psychological thriller film directed by Neil Jordan and written by Ray Wright and Jordan. The film stars Isabelle Huppert, Chloë Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe, Colm Feore and Stephen Rea, and follows a young woman as she befriends a lonely widow who becomes disturbingly obsessed with her.

Greta held its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September 2018. It was theatrically released on 1 March 2019 in the United States, by Focus Features. The film has grossed over $18 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

Frances McCullen, a young waitress living in New York City, finds a handbag on a subway train; the ID inside confirms the bag belongs to a Greta Hideg. Frances visits Greta the next day to return the bag, and Greta invites her in for coffee. Greta tells Frances she is a widow from France, and her daughter Nicola is still there, studying in Paris. Frances and Greta become friends.

One night while having dinner at Greta's, Frances finds a closet full of handbags, identical to the one she found on the train. Attached to the bags are names and phone numbers, including Frances' own. Disturbed by the discovery, Frances cuts ties with Greta, who then begins to stalk Frances, seeing herself as a replacement for Frances's late mother. After turning up at her work, Frances contacts the police and pursues a protection from harassment order, but is told the process will take months.

Frances meets a former lover of Nicola's, and discovers that not only is Greta Hungarian and not French, her daughter committed suicide four years ago due to her sadistic behaviour. Greta also begins to stalk Frances' best friend and roommate, Erica, and follows Frances back to their apartment several times. Greta later shows up to the restaurant again and causes a scene, insisting Frances' mother had to die for them to meet. She suffers a nervous breakdown and is hospitalised.

Erica suggests she lie to Greta, telling her she going away to spend time with her dad for a while, while secretly hiding in their apartment. The following morning, Frances is drugged and kidnapped by Greta. She locks Frances in a wooden toy chest in a secret room at her house, then uses her cell phone to separately text Erica and Frances' father, Chris, telling each that Frances is with the other. When Frances is released from the chest, she finds articles of clothing and IDs of other young women Greta had previously kidnapped, implying that she has killed all of them. Greta also kills her dog, Morton, who Frances helped her adopt.

Erica and Chris eventually get together and learn that Frances is not with either of them. Greta forces Frances to learn Hungarian and how to play the piano, trying to make her her new "daughter". During a cooking lesson while Greta is distracted, Frances severs Greta's little finger with a cookie cutter and then knocks her out cold. Frances tries to escape, but finds that all the doors and windows are sealed off and escape proof. Frances runs into the basement to search for an exit and finds one of Greta's previous victims under a plastic sheet. Greta sneaks up behind Frances and suffocates her until she passes out.

Chris hires a private investigator, Cody, to investigate Greta. Cody learns that Greta was formerly a nurse until she was dismissed for misusing anaesthetics. He meets with Greta in her home; Frances, gagged and bound, attempts to get his attention by shaking the bed, but Greta blocks out the noise with music. When Greta is out of the room, Cody figures out there is a secret room behind the piano, but Greta suddenly appears and plunges a syringe into his neck. He draws his gun as he loses consciousness, and Greta uses it to shoot him dead.

An indeterminate amount of time passes. Greta leaves another handbag on the subway and a young woman brings it to Greta's home. She invites the girl in and makes them a pot of coffee; Greta drinks her cup and starts to feel faint. The woman suddenly loses her Southern accent, takes off her wig, and reveals herself to be Erica, having drugged Greta's cup. She reveals that she has been searching for the handbag on the subway for a long time. Greta passes out and Erica finds Frances. As they try to escape, Greta, regaining consciousness, emerges from the shadows and grabs Frances' face before passing out again.

Erica and Frances place Greta's unconscious body in the toy chest and leave, using a metal Eiffel Tower trinket to lock it shut. After they leave the room to call the police, Greta begins to rattle the lid of the chest and the trinket shifts.

Cast

• Isabelle Huppert as Greta Hideg, an obsessive piano teacher and former nurse
• Chloë Grace Moretz as Frances McCullen, a young waitress
• Maika Monroe as Erica Penn, Frances' friend and roommate
• Colm Feore as Chris McCullen, Frances' workaholic father
• Stephen Rea as Brian Cody, a private investigator
• Zawe Ashton as Alexa Hammond, lover of Greta's long-dead daughter, Nicola
• Thaddeus Daniels as Officer Deroy
• Jeff Hiller as Maitre D' Henri
• Parker Sawyers as Park Hill Manager

Production

In May 2017, it was announced that Isabelle Huppert and Chloë Grace Moretz had signed to star in the film, then titled The Widow. In August 2017, Maika Monroe joined the cast. In September 2017, Stephen Rea, Colm Feore, and Zawe Ashton were added as well.

The film was produced by Metropolitan Films in cooperation with Lawrence Bender Films, Little Wave Productions and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. It also received an €650,000 production grant from the Irish Film Board.

Principal photography took place in and around Dublin, beginning in October 2017. It was also filmed on location in Toronto and New York City.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September 2018. Shortly after, Focus Features beat out studios including Netflix, Lionsgate and Neon to acquire North American, Chinese, Australian and New Zealand distribution rights to the film; the company and its parent Universal Pictures had also purchased UK distribution rights prior. Focus estimated the deal to be around $4 million, though some sources believed the number was as high as $6 million. It was theatrically released on 1 March 2019 in the United States.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 60% of 283 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "A bonkers B movie that's occasionally elevated by its A-list talent, Greta dives headlong into camp and struggles to stay afloat." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Greta was released alongside A Madea Family Funeral, and was projected to gross around $6 million from 2,000 theaters in its opening weekend. It grossed $4.5 million in its opening, finishing eighth, going on to an overall gross of $10.5 million the United States and Canada, and $8.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $18.7 million.

External links

• Official website
• Greta at IMDb