This is a film that announces the setting of the rich and privileged within the opening scenes, with Julianne Moore as Catherine, a gynecologist and Liam Neeson as, David, a professor of music as owners of a post-modern glass house with plush beds and fireplaces and marble in every room. Invading their affluent lifestyle is high-paid escort Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) who sleeps with men for money but comes onto Moore at the ladies’ room of a posh upscale restaurant. David never seems as interested in his wife Catherine who ingratiates dinner guests but doesn’t bother a nod to his wife.
Further suspect of David’s disinterest is that on the night of his birthday he misses his flight back home which causes eyebrows to raise from all Catherine’s friends and associates who have attended a surprise birthday smash. David’s lack of apology is further troubling to Catherine. And then there is 17-year old Michael (Max Thieriot) who is sneaking a girl into his bedroom at night.
It is Catherine who is on the verge of a midlife crisis, ahem, this is a different take than putting a man on the spot every time. But shouldn’t she get some proof that her husband is cheating on her? In another incidental meeting with Chloe the idea of entrapment crosses Catherine’s mind. Catherine hires Chloe to meet David by chance in public, flirt with him, talk naughty with him… the ground rules are never specifically set, at least, not according to Chloe.
So Chloe is hired to go find David to see if he does anything bored married men with their heads down their pants do. But Chloe goes beyond the flirting by seducing him, groping him, taking him on a ride first at a menagerie and that at a hotel. Catherine angrily scalds Chloe for not following directions, but alas, she wants to hear more. And insidiously and ingeniously the film wraps us up in its decadent journey which is all the tastier once Catherine and Chloe begin a heated affair.
Egoyan is the director of such swanky sex-art movies as “Exotica” and “Where the Truth Lies” which dealt with obsession to the breaking point. With his new film he seems to be asking, “How deep and tangibly real is the actual obsession?” and he keeps us guessing with how mischievous David is, how reliable Chloe to sticking to her employer’s requests, and just how credible it would be to really analyze Catherine’s fears and insecurities. The outcome is sublime in its unpredictability, although the end result is more of a captivating entertainment than of a masterpiece of human dissection and dissertation.
What happens is certainly off the deep end from where it started, but Egoyan does fit in an erotic lesbian sex scene that’s too leering to resist. At his most contentious, Egoyan works too hard to put his characters in isolated corners in the final scene to underline their separation and detachment. So the film is not perfect. But the film keeps you buzzed in anticipation.
But it works at times nearly as good as the best scenes of “Eyes Wide Shut” and the films of Roman Polanski such as “Frantic” and “Bitter Moon.” The suspense of the film gets you lusting and the actors are so pitch-perfect in their tremulousness that you can practically feel their pulse.
Go to the official site at http://www.sonyclassics.com/chloe/
Grade: B+
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