Frances McCullen was a lonely young woman, orphaned by her mother, estranged from her father. Greta Hideg was a lonely old woman, widowed by her husband, abandoned by her daughter. One night, Frances picked up Greta's green handbag from a train and delivered it to her house personally the next morning. The two women hit it off very well and found comfort in each other -- one yearning for a mother, the other yearning for a daughter. One day, their ideal friendship was going to take a turn for the sinister.
The experience of watching this film would have been more intense had its trailer not spoiled all the major points of the plot. It already showed us how Frances was going to discover that Greta was not who she seemed. It already showed us how Greta was going to behave once Frances began to avoid her. It was easy to predict how the story was going to go from there, although writer Ray Wright did add a few surprise twists along the way.
I got the vibe of "Fatal Attraction" while watching this film. Greta Hedig was its Alex Forrest, They both grew crazier the more they are ignored. Greta was made to do some pretty over-the-top stalking and terrorizing stunts here, such that the film took a turn to the unrealistically campy. That one scene in the restaurant where waitress Frances was forced to serve her stalker was the most public display of Greta's violent madness, yet the police still did not think she was dangerous -- most unbelievable.
Frances was played by Chloe Grace Moretz, an ever-consistent solid actress among the younger generation. She was sincere in her naivete as a new New Yorker, trusting this nice little old French lady who played the piano, foolishly giving out both her mobile and landline numbers, and apparently, her work and home address too. Ironic how her chewing gum metaphor about herself completely and literally got turned around against her.
Acclaimed senior French actress Isabelle Huppert played Greta, the most unexpected stalker from hell. She was so nice and motherly, and played Lizst on the piano most heavenly. Towards the end, Greta's behavior turned horribly and outrageous psychopathic, yet there we see Huppert was gleefully dancing barefoot like a little girl. Huppert could have made Greta's turn to madness an acting class for subtlety had the film's pace slowed down.
Despite its common creepy stalker plot, this film was still worth the watch because of the level of acting talent it had. I think Jordan should have taken time to develop Frances and Greta's relationship so that its transformation to bad would have been less jarring, thus scarier. The actual violence could have been avoided, as pure deep psychological suspense would have been adequate to carry this story through given his lead actresses. Jordan took the shallower popcorn route on this and paid the price for his decision. 6/10.
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