Chloe

Based on the French film Nathalie and adapted by Erin Cressida Wilson, Chloe begins in a bar where wealthy gynaecologist Dr Catherine Stewart notices the number of men who appear to be there with 'escorts' and wonders if her husband, David, a college professor, has ever contemplated cheating on her. As she suspects that he has been unfaithful, she asks one of the women there, Chloe, to approach him at the restaurant where he stops for his lunch and try to seduce him to see if he is receptive to her advances and, if he is, to see how far he is prepared to go.

When Chloe reports back, we aren't sure whether the news is what Catherine wanted to hear or not but it seems as if her suspicions surrounding why David did not come home, as scheduled, for his big birthday party at home in Toronto are not unfounded. As things progress and Chloe tells Catherine of the increasingly erotic nature of her meetings with David, Catherine begins to find herself becoming aroused either by the thought of her husband by another woman or by its beautiful, enigmatic creature saying the most erotically charged things to her. Either way, when Chloe begins to make moves on her son Michael, Catherine finds herself to be partly threatened by Chloe's intrusion into her family unit and upset at the prospect that her carefully constructed trap may be ruined.

It isn't long before the film moves into Fatal Attraction territory, with Chloe showing up unannounced at Catherine's workplace and, although she doesn't own a pet rabbit, Catherine begins to feel simultaneously threatened and aroused by Chloe to the point where she must bring their relationship closer in order to prevent Chloe from spilling the beans and telling David everything.

Chloe is one of the most erotically charged films I've seen in a long time with some quite remarkable scenes, two of which immediately spring to mind. The first, with some bravura cross cutting, effortlessly switches between Catherine masturbating in the shower reaching the point of climax just as David is brought to exactly the same state by Chloe in the summer house. The other is quite possibly the most erotic lesbian scene I have seen since David Lynch's Mulholland Dr. when Chloe and Catherine finally get together in a hotel room after much verbal sparring in various locations and in increasingly heated situations.


With Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson playing the married couple, you would expect a great deal of heavy duty acting from the film and the two great thespians don't disappoint at all and the ever dependable Moore gives an extraordinarily layered performance that gives Catherine a fair amount of vulnerability, anger and sensuality and, in some scenes, you can see evidence of all three. Amanda Seyfried is often cast as the dowdy, unattractive and frumpy sidekick (see particularly Jennifer's Body) that you often forget how attractive she is so it is a pleasant change to see her given a role with which she can show herself as the beautiful woman she is and an extremely powerful and possibly manipulative individual who uses her sexuality as a weapon.

As Chloe didn't make it to the cinemas near me, I had no idea what to expect from the film and went into it with eyes wide open knowing nothing about the plot, critical reception or financial returns. I was pleasantly surprised by not only the acting, but especially Erin Cressida Wilson's screenplay which seemed much more a feature than Atom Egoyan's direction which is quite stylish and keeps things moving at a decent pace, trying to wrong foot you at every turn so you are not exactly sure just who Chloe is and what she wants. As character driven thrillers/dramas go, it is unsurprising that this reminded me an awful lot of Secretary as Erin Cressida Wilson wrote that as well as this and they do share similar traits.

The Disc

Extra Features
The Making Of (HD 25:41) this is better than your average, run-of-the-mill, making of but isn't as lengthy nor comprehensive as some of the better ones. It comprises interviews with most of the principal cast and crew and some B-roll footage but doesn't go into as much detail as it could.

The Strange Case of Atom Egoyan (HD 1.25:57) is an extraordinary addition to the disc, going through every film that Egoyan has made in quite some depth and helping you to understand how his career has progressed to making this film.

The Deleted Scenes (HD 5:19) show how sparing Egoyan was with shooting as there are so few scenes left over. This, coupled with the Alternate Ending (HD 5:24) show how meticulously planned the movie was and, out of the three endings that were filmed, I think he was right in choosing the one that ended up in the final film.

In addition to all this, you also get interviews with Atom Egoyan, Amanda Seyfried and Julianne Moore, the trailer, a photo gallery and a way to ensure that your system is properly calibrated using video and audio configuration.


The Picture
It is quite easy to become quite blasé about a high definition pictures looking very good as it's exactly what you expect and, if a disc lives up to expectations, then there really isn't much to say. Well, I think a little praise wouldn't go amiss as Chloe looks extremely good with a very sharp picture, excellent costumes and set decoration and some quite amazing locations; the Stewarts live in a house that would quite easily adorn the front cover of an architecture magazine!

The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track does exactly what it should and what you would expect but absolutely no problems whatsoever. The dialogue is presented extremely well and very sharply so that the atmospherics and Mychael Danna's superb score doesn't interfere in the verbal exchanges whatsoever.


Final Thoughts
It is films like this that make it abundantly clear that multiplex cinema chains are run for profit rather than artistic merit as the CEO of, for the sake of argument, Cineworld would rather pick Sex and the City than Chloe because, although it is utterly devoid of realistic human emotion, is comprised entirely of characters whose life revolves around consumption and it's utterly rotten to the core, Sex and the City will sell a great deal more tickets than Chloe which is a far more intelligent, well acted and interesting film. I'm not trying to draw a comparison between them, only to try and rationalise why Chloe was not shown at a cinema near me and so the only opportunity I will get to see it is in my own home.

This isn't the greatest disc that has ever been released and isn't even as good as I was hoping for but it is still worth a look and, although the extra features, when it comes to being directly related to this film, they aren't exactly stellar, they're still a damn sight better than on some bigger budgeted and more high-profile films. The movie is a terrific watch and fans of Secretary and Atom Egoyan's other films should definitely check this out.