Starring: Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried
Distributor: Roadshow Films
Runtime: 96 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2011
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Chloe is based on Anne Fontaine’s French film of 2004 with Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Beart and Gerard Depardieu. This time the wife is played by Julianne Moore, the prostitute, Chloe, by Amanda Seyfield and the husband by Liam Neeson. A very strong cast and strong performances.
Catherine (Moore) and David (Neeson) have been married for 20 years but each has become involved in their professional life, she a gynaecologist, he an arts lecturer, that they have grown used to each other and take each other for granted. When Catherine suspects David of having an affair, she pays for Chloe to make advances to David and report back to her. As always, events do not follow expected paths and people distort the truth, fantasise and are seduced by desires they were not aware of.
Director Atom Egoyan usually writes his own screenplays (Ararat, Adoration) but did not write this one. It is more straightforward than his usual films even though Chloe’s reports and behaviour need our constant evaluation. At times, the film is quite explicit in its presentation of the relationships bringing forcefully to audience awareness the strange attractions and the moral dilemmas the characters, especially Catherine, find themselves in – and the mature response the film demands from its audience.
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