French icon Isabelle Huppert made her biggest splash stateside with her Oscar-nominated performance in Elle. I felt she should have won Best Actress for it, but what do I know? Fortunately, Huppert is back with another challenging role in the thriller genre, Greta, which finds her as a lonely woman in desperate need of friendship. Hmmm…Kathy Bates in Misery also just wanted a friend…
Directed by veteran filmmaker Neil Jordan (The Crying Game), co-written by him and Ray Wright, Greta stars Huppert as a lonely New York City piano teacher who goes to unusual lengths to lure in others so she can befriend them. Chloe Grace Moretz plays the young woman who warms to the older lady, only to discover that she’s hardly the first to fall into the trap. Co-starring in the film are Colm Feore, Maika Monroe, and Jordan’s The Crying Game star Stephen Rea.
Here’s the synopsis: A sweet, naïve young woman trying to make it on her own in New York City, Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz) doesn’t think twice about returning the handbag she finds on the subway to its rightful owner. That owner is Greta (Isabelle Huppert), an eccentric French piano teacher with a love for classical music and an aching loneliness. Having recently lost her mother, Frances quickly grows closer to widowed Greta. The two become fast friends — but Greta’s maternal charms begin to dissolve and grow increasingly disturbing as Frances discovers that nothing in Greta’s life is what it seems in this suspense thriller from Academy Award®-winning director Neil Jordan.
Greta hits theaters on March 1st 2019.
