Chloe (2009)

I had to somehow get the movie watching back into gear.  Once Upon a Time surprisingly ended on me as Season 2 was the last one available on Netflix, so I felt like watching some “steamy romance” which lead to their top choice for me being this one, Chloe.  I’ve brushed past it before on store shelves but never wanted to get it.  I don’t know what  pushed me to do it but I did.  Let’s check it out!

Director: Atom Egoyan

Cast: Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried, Max Thieriot, Nina Dobrev

Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore) feels that her husband David (Liam Neeson) is growing distant. She suspects that he is seeing other women or even worse, having an affair.  At the same time, she also feels that she is unable to communicate with her son (Max Thieriot) By chance, she meets an attractive young escort Chloe (Amanda Seyfried).  In desperation, she decides to hire Chloe to try to seduce David to see if he was open to seeing other woman and whether he would fall into her trap.

I really don’t know how to describe this movie.  There is a twist to it but it flashes in your face pretty early in the movie where its going to go.  Chloe is not a bad movie though.  Its nowhere near some of the thrillers I’ve seen this year with a downright smack you in the face out of nowhere but it does try. My main issue is that its supposed to be in this erotic thriller level and its not that erotic.  Maybe if you appreciate seeing Julianne Moore’s breasts?  I personally enjoy “erotic”/sexual thrillers for their atmosphere.  This one didn’t really have that much of it.  However, those feelings usually are quite subjective.

Chloe is however a good movie mostly because of its characters and the cast portraying them.  First of all, we have Julianne Moore who plays the suspecting wife.  I personally love Julianne Moore.  She’s an amazing actress and she fits quite well in the role.  The suspecting wife dealing with not really knowing how to be affectionate with her husband or talking to her son, knowing her limits; just dealing with life slipping out of her hands as she gets older.  Right alongside her is Liam Neeson as her husband.  I feel like I haven’t seen him in any non-action roles, and then I think about Love Actually and remember that I really loved that movie also.  He’s a pretty good actor and in Chloe, although everything happens because of something he did, we need to see how the story unwinds even without him fully on screen all the time.  It makes for an interesting premise.

Judging from the name of the movie, Chloe is our main character and she’s portrayed by Amanda Seyfried.  I have this love/hate relationship with her as an actress.  She’s been in a lot of movies I like but then she’s also not the reason that I like those also.  I’m not exactly sure how to say it.  However, I think she does a pretty intriguing take on her role as Chloe.  I’m not sure that I should go into too many details since it might hit spoiler territory.

I really appreciated that they had Max Thieriot as the son since I’ve recently been totally loving him.  It could be just Bates Motel doing it for me.  They even had a few scenes with Nina Dobrev as his girlfriend and I love her from Vampire Diaries.  Still, a whole cast of familiar faces is a rare situation for me so it worked for me.

However, I think the story fell short on its whole plot and how it was executed.  I’m not one to complain too much about stories but this is a thriller and that is one of the main points: how they show it.  As much as there is a great cast, it needs to have a more well-thought out take.  It had a few good moments but it was never gripping or intense.  It was just set so that it was so predictable from the start.

These sort of movies like Chloe makes it hard for me to think if I’ll recommend it.  If you like anyone in this cast, maybe its worth your time.  Its nothing fabulous but there’s tons that are worse.  I actually do like it but mostly because I never expected anything from this in the first place.