Isabelle Huppert makes her American debut as Greta, a mysterious woman with a dark history of wanting to befriend young women desperate for friendship. She leaves dark green bags around Manhattan in an attempt of a friendly face to return it.
One such individual, Frances McCullen finds pity on the older women as she sympathizes with her loneliness as her own mother had recently passed away, however things get weird when she discovers she is not the first young woman that Greta has lured into her house. Now time is of the essence for Frances to escape the friendly motherly clutches of Greta.
At roughly an hour thirty nine minute runtime, Greta is a suspenseful, mystery based film that would have movie goers on the edge of their seats. Overall, the film does contain several surprise plot twists leading up to the very end especially with the underlying suspense of the mysterious box and how it plays into the climax of the film.
Greta stars french actress, Huppert as she is most notable for her oscar winning performance in the foreign language film, Elle. In a role reversal, Huppert is now taking on the predator role, though one might wonder, is she really all that dangerous or is it something more as a disturbing history of the mysterious suicide of her daughter surfaces as young Frances tries to figure out how to get away from her.
Chloë Grace Moretz plays young Frances in a role slightly more intense as she goes from the average girl recovering from the loss of her mother and finding a unique friendship with an older woman. Similar to her previous works including The Fifth Wave and If I Stay, Moretz continues to connect with her older counterpart even in the fact that she knows deep down the woman is troubled. Even so the chemistry that Moretz and Huppert share is spot on as she goes from trusting to that of fearing for her life when she realizes just what Greta is capable of.
The third and equally important star is that of Frances friend, Erica (played by Maika Monroe). Monroe has a history with Moretz as the two had previously starred next to each other in the film, The Fifth Wave. That being said, there is a special relationship which ultimately one can see developed from the previous film, which makes the ending not a surprise when one thinks about the facts.
Greta came out in theaters March 1, 2019 and is currently playing in one near you. It’s a movie that will have audiences in suspense until the last scene. It’ll bring new meaning to returning a bag that is left behind.