According to Greta (also known as Surviving Summer in the UK and Greta in Australia) is a 2009 American independent drama film directed by Nancy Bardawil and starring Hilary Duff, with Ellen Burstyn, Michael Murphy, Evan Ross, and Melissa Leo in supporting roles.
Greta (Hilary Duff) O'Donnell-Humphrey-Monroe is seventeen. She is bright and beautiful. She is also rebellious as a consequence of her turbulent home life. She arms herself with sarcasm that barely disguises her hurt. For example, she often alludes to suicide and to the many ways in which she plans to end her life. Pushed aside by her mother, Karen, who is on her third marriage and counting, Greta is shipped off to her grandparents' place in Ocean Groveacc, New Jersey for the summer. She is not happy about it and neither are her grandparents. In fact, she tells them that she fully intends to kill herself before the summer is over and compiles a notebook of suicide methods.
Greta's snarky ways result in her getting a job at a local seafood restaurant. While working there, her odd sense of humor makes her attractive to many customers. Greta falls for a charismatic short-order cook named Julie, only to find out he was once incarcerated in a juvenile correctional facility for stealing cars. His experience made him determined to do something positive with his life and he attempts to convince Greta to not give up on hers...
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: There are some implications Greta's mother neglects and un-prioritizes Greta's many problems. Her father is revealed to have shot himself in front of her while she was child.
- Allergic to Routine: Greta mentions she doesn't care about the routine of school, having a job, or anything like that.
- Artistic License – Geography: Greta contacts Comcast to hook up cable television service in her Grandparents' Ocean Grove home, but the actual cable service provider of Neptune Township (which Ocean Grove is an unincorporated community located within Neptune Township, New Jersey) at the time the film was made was Cablevision (currently provided by successor company Altice).
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The movie's happy ending shows some hope for the family.
- Book Smart: Greta's an A-student.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Defines this trope.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Inverted.
- Cassandra Truth: Greta does think of committing suicide often nobody believes her though.
- Celibate Hero: Julie. When Greta wants to have sex with him, he refuses, because he wants to be more for her than just something on her to-do-list.
- Character Development: Greta does eventually apologize, her mother does stop distancing herself from her child, and her grandmother eventually stops antagonizing Greta.
- Coming of Age Story: Of the extremely dark kind. Greta herself wants to avert the whole thing by killing herself.
- Conflict Ball: Greta's grandmother intentionally starts fights and calls her the enemy to almost excessive lengths
- Daddy's Girl: And Granddad's girl really. She gets along with her paternal people more than with her maternal relationships.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Greta just keeps referring to random moments of pain almost casually, and everybody has their own secrets.
- Darker and Edgier: Compare to any of Hilary Duff's previous films.
- Deadpan Snarker: The movie's selling point was "Hilary Duff plays sociopathic snarker".
- Defrosting Ice Queen: This story is Greta's defrosting.
- Determinator: Greta.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Greta, constantly.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Often in the first reactions, mostly Greta says stupid/mean things and then says something else mean and everybody gets angry.
- Dismotivation: Julie helps her realize her issues with this.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Greta insists on this.
- Driven to Suicide: Greta, constantly.
- Dysfunctional Family: The whole family. Greta is an obvious case of a neglected child, with anger issues and suicidal tendencies. Her mother is a self-centered woman with the mind of a teenager, her father was driven to suicide by his horrible life, her (third) stepfather is obviously only interested in pleasing Greta's mother's childish desires, her grandmother is a confrontational old fart and her grandfather often downplays the importance of things to the point of irresponsibility.
- Dysfunction Junction: Everybody in Greta's family has issues and problems.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The future of the family looks MORBID till about the last half hour where someone steps in and states they need to actually talk and be together and conscience and heal.
- The Eeyore: Greta tries to be this.
- Emotionless Girl: Greta tries really hard to be this.
- Gender-Blender Name: Julie.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Her Grandma has this problem.
- Hates Everyone Equally: Greta, before her character development.
- Hotter and Sexier: Again this is her first roll which mentions sex and she wears some rather sexual clothing.
- I Can Change My Beloved: What Julie believes.
- It's All About Me: Her mother and Greta herself.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Greta.
- Joisey: Greta's grandparents' house is in the Ocean Grove section of Neptune Township, New Jersey; all other scenes are also filmed in New Jersey.
- Just Train Wrong: Bradley Beach Station is solely a New Jersey Transit train station, no buses neither private or public stop inside the parking lot of that station to pick up/drop off passengers.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Hilary Duff playing this role is what makes her lovable.
- Mood-Swinger: Everybody in this film.
- Never My Fault: Greta's mother has this problem.
- Noodle Incident: Greta refers to many of these throughout the film.
- The Ophelia: Three times Greta drowns herself to die.
- Parental Abandonment: Her mother ignores Greta and her dad kills himself.
- Parental Bonus (or, in this case, grandparental bonus): In the German dub, Greta says her name "fits, because I'm divine."
- Product Placement: Greta contacts Comcast to hook up cable television service to her grandparents' Ocean Grove home, even though the service provider for Neptune Township (which Ocean Grove is an unincorporated community located within Neptune Township) at the time was Cablevision.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Everybody to everybody.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Inverted and challenged.
- Sex as Rite-of-Passage: In her list of things to do before she dies this is right up there.
- The Slacker: Greta.
- The Sociopath: Everybody has their moments in this film.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: During Greta's many drownings a happy summer song plays.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Greta forces people away with their abrasive attitude while really feeling depressed because they can't get close to anybody.
- Stopped Caring: Greta at the start.
- Survivor Guilt: May arguably be why Greta wants to kill herself.
- Teens Are Monsters: A slight implication with the dark side of town where Greta is forbidden to go.
- Things Get Real: When Greta's grandmother suffers from a heart issue.
- Where Did We Go Wrong?: TWO generations of this.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Greta's mother has this implication when she "has" to take her to camp to fix her problems.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Everybody except for Greta and Julie.