Chloe (Atom Egoyan, 2010) **

Dir. Atom Egoyan
Starring Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfreid, Liam Neeson, Max Thieriot

Atom Egoyan made two of the best films of the 90s, Erotica and The Sweet Hereafter. In both films, he took general ideas that could have gone very badly in the hands of another director. However, he instilled them with complex human emotions and a genuine sense of creativity in the direction that each plot led the audience. Since then, he has found mixed success with films like Felicia’s Journey and Adoration. His latest film Chloe does not offer any of the complexity found in his best work and is completely predictable from beginning to end. The result is a startling misfire from a once great director.

Catherine Stewart is a doctor who suspects her professor husband David (Liam Neeson) of cheating due to his constant flirting, online chatting, and strange text messages that show up on his phone. This troubles her so much that she decides to find out for sure by paying a prostitute named Chloe (Amanda Seyfreid) to seduce David. However, Catherine soon realizes she may have gotten more than she bargained for as her actions threaten to rip her family apart and put them in serious danger.


This is an erotic thriller and to the film’s credit it at least gets half of that right. This film is very erotic. The attractive A-list cast knows how to play this trashy material for all it is worth. Amanda Seyfreid has the perfect mixture of seductiveness and innocence for the role and few actresses can play an emotional wreck like Catherine as well as Julianne Moore. And both actresses realize what kind of film they're in and accept their task with a bold confidence. The frankness of the sexuality on display is certainly surprising for a film that has received such a wide release.

Unfortunately, the film fails at the basic level of a thriller. We've seen all this before, and at no point does Egoyan deviate from the plan. Each plot point and big "twist" is painfully predictable every step of the way. We can quickly tell what's going on between Chloe and David, what will happen between Chloe and Catherine, and even how Catherine's son will be involved. It is really frustrating to watch this film go down one familiar path after another.

This wouldn't be catastrophic if the film had at least contained some memorable suspense set pieces. But Egoyan isn't even able to build tension in a story that offered ample opportunities for it and he completely flubs the ending in a lazy, rushed finale. He seems more interested in pretending that he's making some sort of psychological drama, but the material just isn't there for that. It's too bad he didn't have the guts to play this trashy thriller to the hilt, because it could've been alot of fun. Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfreid had that courage, and thanks of them the movie is at least never boring.