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Review

Acclaimed Canadian director Atom Egoyan revisits two of his favorite themes (obsession and erotic desire) with the tightly executed and humanity-filled erotic thriller Chloe. Egoyan coaxes compelling and thoroughly human performances out of stars Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried as he explores the dangerous consequences that occur when a successful married woman hires a prostitute to test her husband's faithfulness.

Julianne Moore stars as a successful gynecologist in the midst of planning an elaborate and lavish surprise party for her music professor husband (Liam Neeson). When Neeson fails to show for the party (calling Julianne Moore at the last minute to tell her he's missed his flight), Julianne Moore becomes suspicious of her gregrarious husband's fidelity. The discovery of a text thanking him for "last night" and her husband's obnoxious insistence on flirting with every young woman who crosses his path only serve to bring Julianne Moore's suspicions to a boiling point. A chance encounter with a beautiful young prostitute (Seyfried) in the bathroom of a posh restaurant leads Julianne Moore to hire the young woman to seduce her husband thus offering concrete evidence of his infidelity. This fateful decision leads to a spiral of crushed feelings, unveiled repressed sexual desires and dangerous intrigue.

Chloe, the mysterious young prostitute, returns to Julianne Moore with increasingly sordid details of her developing affair with Neeson, leading Julianne Moore devastated and then, increasingly, extremely aroused. The relationship between the two women becomes increasingly close, and it soon becomes clear that Seyfried has begun regarding Julianne Moore as more than just a client. Elaborate illusions become untangled and Julianne Moore finds the security of her comfortable lifestyle threatened by this interloper.

What's striking about Chloe is the relative warmth of the story. Many of Egoyan's previous films about obsession and desire came across as cold (his highly-acclaimed Exotica was a particularly frigid exploration of eroticism). However, the natural gifts of Julianne Moore and Seyfried impart a natural humanity and make viewers care equally about their respective fates - even as those fates become increasingly at odds. Neeson, however, doesn't fare as well - essentially phoning in a very similar performance to the one he gave in Kinsey. However, as Egoyan exercises considerable formal control to present the story through Julianne Moore's perspective (and the perspective she gets from Chloe's sordid tales) his lack of a strong presence doesn't derail the movie. Also adding in a strong performance is Max Thieriot playing the particularly troubled teenage son of Neeson and Julianne Moore.

Undoubtedly, Chloe is a sexy film. The many flashes of both Julianne Moore's and Seyfried's naked body parts and the passionate hunger in their eyes leads viewers deep into the realm of sexual desire. But, Egoyan never turns the erotic faucet on at full blast. By presenting mere flashes of their naked flesh and detailing Chloe's trysts with Neeson, Egoyan allows the tensions (sexual and otherwise) to come to a very slow boil. When Julianne Moore and Seyfried finally cement their bond through a riveting scene of lesbian sex, these tensions finally reach a rolling boil. Of course, Egoyan's decision to hold back also considerably add to the film's status as a mystery and leave viewers uncertain of what is real and what is imagined. In Egoyan's steady auteur hands, what could've been a B-grade genre-pleasing erotic thriller becomes a deeply insightful look into the way that people use one another and the tragic consequences that can unfold when their agendas don;t match. The film manages to be sad, thoughtful, erotic and very exciting all at once... a feat that will be difficult to match.