Taglines: Desire can be dangerous.
Atom Egoyan’s remake of the French thriller “Nathalie…” The project centers on a married woman (Julianne Moore) who hires a prostitute (Amanda Seyfried) to find out whether her husband (Liam Neeson) is cheating on her. The prostitute, however, cons her about the nature of her husband’s fidelity, a move that puts the family in jeopardy.
Julianne Moore stars as Catherine, a gynaecologist who suspects that her husband David (Liam Neeson) is having an affair. She seems to live in a hormonal world where everyone is having sex apart from her. Even their teenage son Michael (Max Thieriot) is blatantly inviting his girlfriend to stay the night.
Catherine becomes a woman unhinged by a jealousy that is only exacerbated by middle-aged insecurity. In order to test David’s loyalty she hires escort Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) to seduce him. Chloe is only too happy to provide her with graphic details of their illicit encounters, something that Catherine finds both distressing and arousing.
Chloe is an erotic thriller film directed by Atom Egoyan, a remake of the 2003 French film Nathalie…. It stars Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried in the title role. Its screenplay was written by Erin Cressida Wilson, based on the earlier French film, written by Anne Fontaine. Despite its mixed critical reception, Chloe made more money than any of Atom Egoyan’s previous films.
About the Story
When David (Liam Neeson) misses his flight home from New York and, as a result, the surprise party his wife Catherine (Julianne Moore) has planned for him, Catherine is forced to swallow her disappointment and any suspicions and return to the waiting guests. Reading a text message sent to David’s phone the following morning from one of his female students, Catherine’s fear grows.
The successful couple, Catherine, a doctor, and David a professor of music, have a 17-year-old son, Michael (Max Theriot), and to an outsider, they have everything. But their careers and raising a child have put strains on the marriage; their relationship is suffering greatly from loss of communication and intimacy.
Two weeks after the surprise party, Catherine and David are at dinner with friends when Catherine excuses herself to use the restroom. There she meets an alluring young woman who, in those brief moments, connects with Catherine—it is Chloe (Amanda Seyfried). Returning to the table where they’re now playing –spot the hooker, Catherine watches with interest as Chloe approaches an older businessman. On the drive home Catherine finally asks David if he intentionally missed his flight from New York to stay for drinks. When he claims he did not, she knows she has caught him in a lie.
Now more suspicious than ever that David is having an affair, Catherine seeks out Chloe, an escort, hiring her to test David’s fidelity. Meeting regularly, Catherine absorbs the explicit details Chloe shares of her encounters with David, igniting Catherine’s jealousy and awakening long-dormant sensations. Soon caught in a web of sexual desire, Catherine finds herself on a journey that places her family in great danger—is it too late to stop Chloe?
Atom Egoyan’s Thoughts on Chloe
First and foremost CHLOE deals with the nature of intimacy. But, I think the film is ultimately about what we look for in a relationship—to see someone else, as we would like ourselves to be seen and the idea of protecting someone else’s right to be alone or to protect solitude. As Rilke wrote, it is one’s role as a partner to protect the other’s solitude and yet there’s this balance between doing that and losing someone. That to me is what the film is about—how to be allowed to imagine ourselves and integrate that in a relationship.
In any love relationship, you have to project yourself but if you’re not aware of the explicit agenda of the other person, the skew can become really dangerous, even explosive. This is the terrain the film deals with—both in the conventional idea of a marriage as well as an unexpected marriage between two souls who are searching for something they think they have found in each other.
And in some ways, the film is about the necessity and the danger of creative interpretation of the self. Ultimately, we all need to believe in certain stories or narratives about ourselves. We all need to feel we have some control over how that narrative evolves, however we have no control over the variables—we can’t anticipate all of the other emotional factors that come into play.
There’s always a variable when dealing with human beings. We are incredibly complex sensitive souls and no matter how you think a relationship is defined by parameters, those can always evolve – so we need to be invested in other people; we need to fall in love and we need to go to those places but we also need to equip ourselves in understanding how fragile other people are. If we don’t there’s bound to be consequences.
Continue Reading and View the Theatrical Trailer
Chloe (2010)
Directed by: Atom Egoyan
Starring: Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson, Max Thieriot, Meghan Heffern, Nina Dobrev, Mishu Vellani, Tiffany Lyndall-Knight, Natalie Lisinska, Laura de Carteret
Screenplay by: Erin Cressida Wilson
Production Design by: Phillip Barker
Cinematography by: Paul Sarossy
Film Editing by: Susan Shipton
Costume Design by: Debra Hanson
Set Decoration by: Jim Lambie
Art Direction by: Kim McQuiston
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content including graphic dialogue, nudity and language.
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: March 26, 2010