According to Greta (2009)

Good idea lost in the noise

Boring, long, and too preachy.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This may not be a very long review but I think it is one worth reading. Everyone is saying how it is good acting but I am insulted! Overall it is a good film but as a teenager myself who is suffering from depression and suicidal thought myself, I feel that this film has portrayed this type of person completely wrong! I am in almost the same situation as Greta but I am disgusted by the way that chose to act out her role! If she really was suicidal she would not be telling everyone like that! She would be hiding it inside and killing herself quietly! She would show more signs of depression like food disorders, or even just depression! I cannot bring myself to understand how someone who was suffering from such a severe illness would then be able to throw it all away at the end and just be 'fine'!

Greta (Hilary Duff) is banished by her hated mother to her grandparents (Michael Murphy, Ellen Burstyn) in the New Jersey seaside retirement town for the summer in an effort to save her 3rd marriage. She lost her father. She's 17 and vows to kill herself before her 18th birthday. She gets a waitress job at the local boardwalk restaurant to pay for cable TV and is adorably rude at it. She tries to shock her grandparents with the juvenile delinquent cook Julie (Evan Ross) but it backfires on her. They kinda like him and she likes him too. However she is still pulled to her darker side.Hilary Duff is trying to do a little something with a slight edge to it. She does a good enough job although she still needs work accessing the darker tones in her performance. There is a little something promising going on here but it doesn't get beyond that. Evan Ross is not nearly charismatic enough. It's good that Hilary tried to go darker but she's not really successful at it.

I started with little hope for this movie except for it to kindly fill 90 minutes of my time and let me enjoy some mindless time-out. It definitely accomplished this, though, unusually, it's left me with some points of interest worth raising.I found Greta's serious desire to prevent herself from growing old and to off herself once her fun time is up very interesting and captivating. However, much like her offbeat, rough character traits, it seemed to have been dismissed too easily in the end. I would've much preferred some more development on her character and her relationships and maybe some deeper explanation to her than the 'my father did this' excuse. Why did it not turn her off suicide? She says she wants to kill herself so she can avoid the boring, annoying events of life that come with ageing, yet is this why her father shot himself? I don't think there's a connection (unless I've forgotten a plot point already.) It would be wrong to say this movie was about her relationship with Julie, and though, I personally had more interest in Greta's relationship with her grandparents, I found his character just lovely and warm and very endearing. However, I am puzzled as to why the 3 supporting characters just let Greta carry on the way she did. Yes, the neighbour and her mother went about it the wrong way, but there should have been MORE standing up to her. Her behaviour was atrocious and I felt there was no real redemption for it from the other characters. Why did they even want her around? I certainly wouldn't have wanted any more of her after one conversation.Maybe it was okay that there was no answer to the Greta and Julie question -- I don't mind open endings for some parts, but there still has to be resolution, and I think Julie gave her that.While this movie was enjoyable and definitely a big step up for Duff, I feel there was just not enough to make it 'great'. Comparisons to a mix of Georgia Rule and Juno are not off base.

This movie left me pleasantly surprised. I was not expecting much but it delivered. It does not seem like a high budget movie; the plot is not terribly interesting but there is a human story that really touched me. There is definitely a bright ray of hope in the movie. By the way, I was also very surprised by the performance of Hilary Duff, it was actually quite good. This is a great example of a movie with a cast that is not famous but who work together well to portray the characters. It is one of those movies that I may not remember all the details of but I will remember that it had some good meaning... Watch it, you won't regret it.