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Movies & TV

Chloe

CHLOE (E1, 2009) D: Atom Egoyan, w/Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried. Rating: NN DVD package: NNN Rating: NN


Whether you see Chloe as a thoughtful art house drama or a timid, bungled B movie depends on your expectations and past viewing experience.

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If you’re a habitual art house patron, you’ll notice the fine, subtext-rich acting by Julianne Moore as the Yorkville gynaecologist who fears her husband is cheating on her and hires the titular hooker (a good performance by Aman-da Seyfried) to check him out. You’ll catch some of director Atom Egoyan’s ongoing philosophical concern with identity and obsession, and enjoy his chilly compositions, jarring colour and ever-present mirror motif.

If you’re a B movie fan, you’ll listen to Chloe’s opening voice-over, take one look at the calculating glances behind her doe-eyed victim persona and know exactly where this is going. You’ll be disappointed when it gets there, since the big climax is thin and unconvincing. You won’t have much fun on the way either: there’s a bit of genteel sex, but no tense creeping around or minor characters offed for knowing too much.

In the commentary, Egoyan claims that Chloe isn’t a thriller, and co-commentators Seyfried and writer Erin Cressida Wilson agree. They also insist that their interpretations are not the definitive ones (a rare admission in any commentary). There’s more fun in their divergent views of characters’ psychologies and motives than there is in the movie itself.

EXTRAS Commentary, making-of doc, deleted scenes. Widescreen. English, French audio and subtitles.

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