Image: Universal Pictures Australia
Doing the right thing has dire consequences for a sweet but naive Frances (Chloe Grace Moretz) when she happens upon a bag on the subway and returns it to its owner. All the warnings about stranger danger and the lure of sweet older women are as relevant as ever in this fractured fairytale from director Neil Jordan (Interview With the Vampire). Despite protests from the more streetwise, worldly best friend Erica (Maika Monroe-It Follows) she strikes up a rapid friendship with the older piano teacher Greta (Isabelle Huppert).
Any New Yorker would be suspicious of a mysterious package on the subway-“where I’m from, you call the bomb squad” retorts Erica, who can’t believe that her friend doesn’t just steal the contents and toss the bag aside. Still, you can’t help but feel for Frances, whose grief over her dead mother has estranged her from her father and placed her in isolation in the big city that will “chew you up and spit you out.” Equally, Greta’s vague explanation that her daughter is off in Paris studying somewhere and that her husband and dog are also deceased is enough of a shared experience for the pair to bond and find solace in each other. In almost no time at all, they’re adopting a dog, strolling through the park and cooking together, and for a few moments you almost want the relationship to last and work. If Frances had not discovered her new surrogate mother’s secret, it’s hinted that they might actually be what the other needs for the time being. Greta’s continental charms, her Chanel couture and her diminutive figure do not initially pose a threat to Frances, but from the onset we sense she is not as inept with technology and phones as she appears, and soon her maternal affection descends into psychotic madness.
There are enough B grade thriller tropes to be had here, right from the two parents being out of the picture, the small town girl who only sees the good in anybody, through to the authorities and colleagues who are incompetent in dealing with the stalking and harassment. Even a private investigator (Stephen Rea, a Neil Jordan regular) is on board, but he’s not much help either and is soon eliminated. Isabelle Huppert plays the villain with glee, but at times she feel likes a cookie cutter baddie whose sole motive is loneliness and possession of young women to abet her ache. That’s not to say she’s not in on the joke, accentuating her madness by flipping tables in restaurants or nonchalantly dismissing the thuds from behind her piano as ongoing construction. You almost wonder how a woman of small stature could be so overpowering, but her mopey faux French accent and Frances’ doe-eyed persona is enough to make her vulnerable and willing to make her walk right back in. Breaking up is hard to do, especially when your admirer won’t take no for an answer.
Still, the intrigue lies in the subverted genre conventions. What would normally be a romantic thriller between a man and a woman is switched to an intergenerational friendship between two women. The concerned boyfriend is instead the female best friend, and another woman who claims to know the real Greta place women at the core of traditionally masculine genre. Clingy friendships aside, any mummy issues should not preclude a young woman in this era to be blind to the red flags (just think of many warnings we receive about walking home alone), but there’s enough plausible tension to keep you invested for the 99 minute run (yes, run, because there’s nothing slowing the pace).
Sometimes being a good Samaritan is more trouble than it’s worth.
Verdict:7/10
Universal Pictures Australia
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