Chloe

I want to make something clear to you perverts out there who assume the worst from me (not that I haven’t justified it). When I say Amanda Seyfried has big eyes, I really mean she has big EYES. It’s not a euphemism.

Julianne Moore stars as Catherine – a middle aged mother of a teen boy (Max Thierot) married to a hunky college professor, David (Liam Neeson), who always gets special attention from his young, female students. As the marriage starts to suffer, Catherine is convinced David is doing more than tutoring during his office hours, so she does what any insane, irrational, absolutely crazy woman would do, she hires Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) to seduce her husband to prove he is fooling around.

Why is Chloe perfect for the job? Because she is, umm, a lady of the evening, girlfriend for hire, costly call girl, an enticing escort (you get the picture). Essentially, she’ll know exactly what to do to woo the professor. However, Catherine might not like the results, especially as Chloe seems to be getting closer to success, and Catherine is a bit turned on by the whole thing.

Will David take the bait?

Is Catherine ready for the impact this scheme will have on her family and marriage?

Chloe mostly succeeds in being an erotic, mysterious thriller mainly because of the actors involved. I just think it needs more action.

Moore is very good as the wife who feels the ravages of age catching up with her (even though she is still one of the sexiest women in the world), and makes the audience realize how much of this worry is self-induced as the movie progresses, or is it? Neeson gives a great performance that always has you wondering what David is up to. Because of him, you never really know if David is a dog, or just a guy who is misunderstood and being blamed based on circumstantial evidence, rather than actual bad deeds.

Then, you get Seyfried, who surprised me with her ability to be innocently intoxicating and erotic all at the same time, especially as you look into those big, haunting, alien-like eyes. She’s not on Moore’s level, yet, but Seyfried is more than capable of being the tough mean girl when needed, as well as the coquettish dream of every man over the age of 35 (and most men who have entered puberty, but I digress). This performance is a huge improvement over her last film, Dear John.

Unfortunately, director Atom Egoyan and writer Erin Cressida Wilson (based on the movie by Anne Fontaine) make us wait too long for anything to happen. Egoyan is obsessed with setting a tone, instead of progressing the story. Sure, we need to feel that intrigue and wonder what is going on in Catherine’s head (and David’s pants), but Egoyan seems to be more interested in showing us a longing look, when we need plot twists. Then, he piles it on towards the end and gives us too much action in too short of a time period.

Chloe is one of those movies you should check out if you have a burning interest in it, or love one of the leads.

Chloe is rated R for strong sexual content including graphic dialogue, nudity and language.