This promised much; a fine director, Neil Jordan who has an impressive track record of interesting and often slightly unusual films. He was also the co-writer. A fine cast – Chloe Grace Moritz – not a great star but very decent, Stephen Frear (CHECK) – again another actor who usually seems to make good and often interesting choice and, most significantly, Isabelle Huppert who has a long list of fascinating, often provocative European films. And the premise of the film seemed promising – a friendship that then tales a very grim and sinister turn – not the most original of premises but, with the cast and crew indicated, a likelihood that it would probably be something more than a thriller-by-numbers.
How wrong. This was unutterably dire – an absurd farrago that got more and more absurd as time passed and culminating in a tritely predictable resolution that really satisfied nobody. There were large plot holes – how did the PI brought in towards the end (a disappointingly brief appearance by Stephen Frear) almost immediately go straight to the right person? Huppert as the titular crazy person was disappointingly and drearily one-note – but then she was not really given any half-way decent material to work with. And the climax had an absurd best-friend dea ex machine that was just ludicrous.
One of the few good touches was the final image of a model Eiffel Tower, used to secure a trunk, that was being rattled by the person trapped inside. But when literally the final shot is the only worthwhile element to comment upon – well, you get come idea of the quality of the rest of the film.