Chloe (DVD)

Canadian director Atom Egoyan is responsible for a number of well-respected indie dramas like Family Viewing (1987) and The Sweet Hereafter (1997), but the glossy Chloe, with its pulpy eroticism and its thriller structure, is a definite step towards the mainstream.

Julianne Moore plays gynaecologist Catherine, who begins to suspect that her lecturer husband David (Liam Neeson) is having an affair. When she bumps into high-class prostitute Chloe (Amanda Seyfried), she comes up with a plan to test David's fidelity. She enlists Chloe to try to seduce him, in order to find out whether he is truly willing to cheat. However, there is more to Chloe than it first appears, and events soon spiral out of Catherine's control.

Chloe begins as a Hitchcockian suspense drama in the vein of Suspicion, before deciding to become a sort of psycho-thriller. Despite a typically committed and solid performance from Moore, the film is never plausible, thanks to its increasingly absurd plot and an unconvincing script. That leaves only cheap thrills - of which there are a fair few. On this level, it's reasonably entertaining, even if the film's combination of psychological sex games and overused classical music usually results in little more than watery erotica.

There are loads of special features on the disc, but it's all fairly uninspiring, given the dubious quality of the film itself. Alongside standard fare (interviews; a 'Making-of' featurette) there's an 'Alternative End', which is exactly the same as the film's original ending except that it has a voiceover from Chloe, which only serves to make the closing sequence that little bit worse.

Overall Verdict: Longtime art-house director Egoyan has made a so-so commercial thriller that is basically a TV movie with slightly higher production values.  

Special Features:
Making Of
A Day in Toronto
Deleted Scenes
Alternative End
Interviews
Trailer
Photography

Reviewer: Tom René