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

This article s plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Frances McCullen (Chloë Grace Moretz) is a young waitress living in New York City with her friend and roommate Erica (Maika Monroe). Frances is still reeling from the death of her mother one year prior, and maintains a strained relationship with her workaholic father Chris (Colm Feore). One morning, Frances finds a handbag on a subway train; the ID inside confirms the bag belongs to a Greta Hideg (Isabelle Huppert). Frances visits Greta the next day to return the bag and the kindly 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 begins to spend time with Greta to keep her company, visiting the church where her husband played the organ, and helping her adopt a dog, despite Erica s objections that their friendship is unnatural. One night while having dinner at Greta s, Frances finds a closet full of multiple handbags, identical to the one she found on the train. Attached to the bags are names and phone numbers, including Frances s own.

Frances, disturbed by her discovery, decides to cut ties with Greta. Greta begins to stalk Frances, seeing herself as a replacement for Frances s late mother; she rings her multiple times and even turns up at the restaurant where Frances works, and sits outside, staring at her. Greta also stalks Erica; Frances and Erica pursue a restraining order, but are told the process could take months. Frances later meets a former lover of Greta s daughter, and finds out how deep Greta s lies run: not only is she really Hungarian and not French, Greta s daughter actually committed suicide four years ago due to her mother s sadistic behavior, and that Greta suffers with mental illness. Later that night, Greta shows up at the restaurant again, and insists to Frances that her mother had to die for them to meet, eventually causing a disturbing scene that results in Greta being hospitalized and Frances getting fired.

Frances is torn between going home with her father or going on vacation with Erica. Erica then suggests Frances lie to Greta, saying she is going away while secretly hiding in their apartment. The next morning, Frances is drugged and kidnapped by Greta; she locks Frances in a wooden toy chest in a secret room, then uses Frances s cell phone to separately text Erica and 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; it is implied that Greta has killed all of them.

Erica and Chris eventually get together and learn that Frances is not with either of them. As time passes, 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 cuts off Greta s little finger with a cookie cutter and knocks her unconscious with a rolling pin. She tries to escape but finds that all the doors and windows are sealed. 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 Cody, a private investigator, to find his daughter and investigate Greta. Cody learns that Greta was formerly a nurse until she was dismissed for misusing anaesthetics. Cody 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. 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 s 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 acquired distribution rights to the film for $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

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 made $1.6 million on its first day, including $350,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $4.6 million, finishing eighth at the box office.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 60%, based on 279 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website s critical 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. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 54 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews . Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of C on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 2 out of 5 stars and a 34% definite recommend .

Year	2018
ReleaseDate	2019-03-01
RuntimeMins	98
RuntimeStr	1h 38min
Plot	A young woman befriends a lonely widow who’s harboring a dark and deadly agenda toward her.
Awards	Awards, 2 wins & 4 nominations
Directors	Neil Jordan
Writers	Ray Wright, Neil Jordan
Stars	Isabelle Huppert, Chloë Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe
Produced by	Judy Ahn,Lawrence Bender,Hong Chen,Paula Devonshire,Kim Do-soo,James Flynn,Ronan Flynn,Mei Han,Neil Jordan,Sidney Kimmel,Brian Kornreich,Richard D. Lewis,Lei Luo,Lesley McKimm,Mark O’Connor,John Penotti,Karen Richards,Hwang Soon-il,Hao Tang,Dylan Tarason,Catherine Tiernan,Bruce Toll,John Weber,Yan Xu,Zhe Zhou
Music by	Javier Navarrete
Cinematography by	Seamus McGarvey
Film Editing by	Nick Emerson
Casting By	Jina Jay
Production Design by	Anna Rackard
Art Direction by	Jason Clarke,Fiona Gavin
Set Decoration by	John Neligan
Costume Design by	Joan Bergin
Makeup Department	Lani Barry,Elaine Finnan,Lorraine Glynn,Elvira Gonzalez,Lynn Johnston,Malvo Karpats,Stephanie Kavanagh,Thi-Loan Nguyen,Colin Penman,Ryan Reed,Matthew Smith
Production Management	Stephanie Blackwood,Geraldine Daly,Peter Pastorelli,Tricia Perrott,Philip Spurvey,John Sylva
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Benjamin Barry,Harry Boyd,Raymond J. Duff,Nicola Jackson,Siobhan Kavanagh,Carmen Kovacs,Jordana Lieberman,Keith Marlin,Colm O’Brien,Michael Queen,Jonathan Quinlan,Alejandro Ramia,Tom Speirs,Jason M. Washington
Art Department	Kate Aungier,Elizabeth Brennan,Naomi Burke,Joanne Carstairs,Paul Comiskey,Steven Cordeiro,John Curran,Mark Forbes,Deirbhile Giblin,Lyndon Johnston,Gillian Jonker,Darren Kearney,Jason Kirk,Jess Lockhart,Ian McCaffrey,Jonathan McGonnell,Ciara McKenna,Jeannie O’Brien,Rupert O’Neill,Fabien Oman,Michelle Poirier,Pilar Valencia,Francesca Valente
Sound Department	Tristan Baylis,Carles Berot,Sinéad Brady,Phil Brewster,Enda Callan,Ray Cross,Caoimhe Doyle,Noah Dunbar,Ken Galvin,Steven Ghouti,Gabriel Gutiérrez,Nathan Hasz,Stefan Henrix,Fionán Higgins,Zach Hunter,Steve Jackson,Ihor Kaniuk,Megan Kiernan,Daniel Loughran,Jean McGrath,Dominick Michele,Michael Miller,Sean O’Toole,Jonathan Reynolds,Jorge Robles,Eric Ryan,Jerry Stein,Kathie Talbot,Lambert Windges
Special Effects by	Kevin Byrne,Conor Craig
Visual Effects by	Jessica Beirne,Zoltán Benyó,Tony Cybulski,Igor Garanovschii,Roby Illés,Mohsin Kazi,Dénes Molnár,Brandon Outhwaite,Matt Philip,Ramin Pournavab,Jerry Seguin,Maxime Stein,Tom Turnbull,Jamie Turpin,Pavan Veeramaneni,Bryan Walman
Stunts	Dave Boyle,Jordan Coombes,James Cosgrave,Neimah Djourabchi,Cam Fergus,Eimear O’Grady,Stephen Ryan,Brendan Swan,Martin White,Lauterio Zamparelli
Camera and Electrical Department	Keith Anderson,Garret Baldwin,Gabriele DiChiara,Brian Dungan,Mike Gowland,Alec Jarnagin,Robert Johnson,Patrick King,Vinnie Laraway,Sean Leonard,Louise MacEllin,John McCarthy,James McGuire,Svetoslav Mihaylov,’Kis Gromek’ László Molnár,Philip Murphy,Jojo Mylotte,Cormac O’Maille,Micheal O’Mogáin,Richard Pengelly,Alastair Rae,Patrick Redmond,Ron Renzetti,Jason Ruffley,Steven Search,Robert Tagliaferri,Alan D Thatcher,Paul Dodd
Casting Department	Henry Russell Bergstein,Olivia Brittain,Stephanie Gorin,Jesse Griffiths,Eliza Heslop,Mircea Mike Mandrut,Brendan Wilcocks
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Jodi Bowers,Nicola Flynn,Ciara James,Suzanne Keogh,Amy Kerslake
Editorial Department	Aaron Carroll,Martin Fanning,Dave Hughes,Robbie O’Farrell,John Phillipson,Rob Stuart,Jamie Turpin
Location Management	Don Cornelius,Rob Cristiano,Kurt Enger,Dean Gilchrist,Tarryn Greybè,Fred Kamping,Niall Martin,Cathy Pearson,Michael Swan
Music Department	David Brophy,Anthony Byrne,Joe Csibi,Cathleen Flynn,Fionnuala Hunt,Lewis Jones,Brian Masterson,Steve Parr,Larry Rench,Chris Robertson,Yue Tang
Script and Continuity Department	Morag Cameron,Charlotte Keating,Brandon Lohstreter
Transportation Department	Wayne Corrigan,Brendan King
Additional Crew	Miya Akiyama,Annie Atkins,Cassandra Barbour,Stephen Burt,Paula Byrden,Mark A. Byrne,Aoife Cassidy,Clayton Conroy,Kim Dang,Sammy De La O,Mark Dollard,Rachel Elizabeth McKim,Juliette Fourniez,Rebecca Gausnell,Liz Gutierrez,Vasia Ivanov,David Ivory,Robert Lamonaca,Amry Landsberg,Kurtis Leon Baker,Gabriella Ludlow,Brett McDermid,Josh Miller,Amanda Nieto,Conor Noone,Anna Poplevina,Ruth Calder Potts,Bairbre Quinn,Mona Rauf,Anne Reid,Michelle Ryan,Esther Scannell,Mark Schrier,Meagan Sevier,Michael Stark,Stephen Talbot,Anna Wilson Flynn,Mark Quigley
Thanks	Kevin Farrell,Alexander Wilson Flynn,Susan Holmes,Karl Lagerfeld,Haitian Li,Lulu Liu,Christopher Maddox,Morgan O’Sullivan,Michael Phelan,Brenda Rawn,Neil Sacker,Christopher Spicer,Juanita Wilson,Mandy Xu,Nancy Xu
Genres	Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Companies	Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Lawrence Bender Productions, Little Wave Productions
Countries	Ireland, USA
Languages	English, Hungarian, French, Korean
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	6
ImDbRatingVotes	33910
MetacriticRating	54
Keywords	kidnapping,obsession,stalker,older woman younger woman relationship,stalking