Regardless of genre or target audience, Amanda Seyfried‘s characters have a long history of dramatic romance. From the actor’s musical outings in films like Mamma Mia! and Les Misérables to Seyfried’s darker turns in Veronica Mars and Jennifer’s Body, the performer has taken part in a compelling set of diverse love stories over the years. The majority of Seyfried’s most well-known performances tend to focus on younger characters and settings, however, so fans of the actor looking for a more mature romantic drama should check out director Atom Egoyan‘s 2009 erotic thriller, Chloe. A tense blend of sex and suspense, Egoyan’s film is a cinematic update to director Anna Fontaine‘s 2003 film Nathalie… that features Seyfried in the title role, with the movie’s intersecting themes of sexuality, beauty, and marital fidelity all offering a thought-provoking watch for those grappling with how love can survive a world overwhelmed with broken trust.
What Is ‘Chloe’ About?
Following the broad strokes of Nathalie…‘s basic plot, Egoyan’s Chloe centers around Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore), a wealthy gynecologist, mother, and devoted wife who finds herself navigating a familiar predicament for many middle-aged adults—the disillusionment of an unfulfilling personal life. Stuck in a passionless marriage with her husband, David (Liam Neeson), a music professor who can’t find the time to come home for his birthday but nevertheless makes time to flirt with his students and almost any nearby woman, Catherine subsequently suspects David’s infidelity. Moore’s character doesn’t act on her suspicions, however, until a fateful meeting with Seyfried’s Chloe in the bathroom of a fancy hotel. Successfully guessing that Chloe is a professional escort, Catherine becomes the young woman’s latest client in an attempt to catch her husband cheating in the act.
The premise of the pair’s agreement is simple. Catherine provides Chloe with information about her husband in an attempt to instigate a sort of meet-cute between the two and test whether David will make an unfaithful move, and Chloe is then supposed to report back. In the process of recalling her encounters with David, however, the relationship between Catherine and Chloe soon begins to intensify, with each of Chloe’s descriptions becoming more and more graphic and both women becoming enamored with their retellings. In this regard, Chloe offers a beautiful mend to what appears to be a broken marriage. As Catherine admits later in the film, neither she nor David has made a habit of touching the other in a long time, yet she finds a way to rekindle her desire for him through Chloe’s deceptive interactions. At the same time, Catherine also begins to develop a desire for Chloe herself, resulting in both women being forced to confront their rapidly evolving intimacy.
Amanda Seyfried Imbues ‘Chloe’ With an Earnest Sense of Romance and Revenge
While Chloe aspires to rank among Hollywood’s best romantic thrillers, the film’s true strength lies in the connection between its leads, and Seyfried in particular delivers a performance that manages to balance the self-confidence of an experienced professional with the earnest excitement of someone genuinely falling in love. Even when Chloe unveils the big third-act twist it inherits from Fontaine’s film, Seyfried never loses the sincerity of her delivery, making it possible to root for her even as the audience is clued in to more and more of her character’s manipulations, and Chloe targets Catherine’s son (Max Thieriot) to both punish and remain close with the woman she loves. As a result, while Chloe likely wouldn’t be listed among the actor’s best movies, Seyfried’s performance is nonetheless the most human and enjoyable one depicted in Egoyan’s film.
This relatable delivery is especially important because it is surrounded by no small number of cinematic flaws, as noted by the film’s many critics. While Catherine eventually reveals her suspicions were originally driven by insecurities over her age and appearance that are endemic to a society that disproportionately correlates youth with beauty, Chloe does very little to interrogate these conventions, nor does the film dedicate sufficient time to unpacking the nuanced desires interwoven throughout David and Catherine’s relationship. In fact, as a result of a rushed third act, the film falls into many harmful stereotypes that stain an otherwise interesting premise. The film’s ending in particular extracts its vengeful thrills from the harmful trope of the predatory bisexual, and the additions made to Nathalie…‘s original ending likewise reinforce the negative stereotype of the tragic sex worker.
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‘Mamma Mia!’ also stars Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, and Christine Baranski.
That said, while Chloe’s characterization jumps from lovestruck to obsessive seemingly overnight, Chloe still offers plenty of enjoyable moments for those who approach the film with an open mind. The relationship between Seyfried’s Chloe and Moore’s Catherine showcases a unique vulnerability between both actors, and though the film does a poor job of speaking to it, Catherine’s relationship with the escort actually tells an interesting story of failed queer becoming. Despite learning how to act on her desires from Chloe, Catherine is ultimately unable to embrace the emotions that thrill her, making Chloe as much a relatable tale of faltering identity as it is an examination of whether family is worth protecting from true desire.
Chloe
- Release Date
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March 25, 2009
- Runtime
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96 minutes
- Director
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Atom Egoyan
- Writers
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Erin Cressida Wilson, Anne Fontaine
- Producers
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Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman, Jason Reitman, Jeffrey Clifford, Joe Medjuck, Tom Pollock, Ali Bell, Ron Halpern
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