Today’s quick review: Chloe. Afraid that her husband David (Liam Neeson) is cheating on her, Dr. Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore) hires Chloe (Amanda Seyfried), a high-class prostitute with a knack for reading people, to try to seduce him as a test of his fidelity. But when Chloe confirms her worst fears, Catherine doesn’t know what to feel. Unsure of how to save her marriage, Catherine begins to feel a strange attraction to Chloe herself.
Chloe is a romantic drama and psychological thriller about a wife’s attempt to trap her cheating husband. Julianne Moore stars as Catherine, whose age and increasing distance from her husband have made her insecure about her marriage. A chance meeting with Chloe gives her an opportunity that could either save her relationship or ruin it. The movie explores some interesting questions about love, but its explicit content won’t be for everyone.
On the surface, Chloe is a steamy movie about a dangerous romantic entanglement. The title character is a pretty, affectionate young woman who, by trade or by habit, injects sex into nearly every situation she’s in. The tension that drives the movie is the interplay between Catherine’s escalating doubts and Chloe’s innocent style of seduction. The movie delivers titillation at every opportunity but laces it with an uneasy sense of peril.
At a slightly deeper level, Chloe explores the facets of a midlife crisis and a marriage on the rocks. Outwardly, the Stewarts have an idyllic life: a lavish home, a pair of high-paying jobs, and a talented teenage son (Max Thieriot). But with the passion of their youth fading, Catherine is driven to desperate measures. The movie uses this setup as a case study in some of the threats that can beset a marriage and the befuddling side of romance.
For all of its aspirations, Chloe is only partially successful in what it sets out to do. It does a fine job of motivating Catherine’s insecurities, but Chloe herself gets short shrift. She has all the makings of an intriguing, multifaceted character, but the story has only scratched the surface of her issues when it decides to wrap up. The same goes for the story as a whole: interesting tensions that never quite reach a satisfying conclusion.
As such, Chloe ends up coasting on its sex appeal. The movie points to themes more than it says anything meaningful about them. The thriller side of the plot never gets fully developed, only boiling over near the end and never reaching the shocking peaks it’s meant to. To the extent that Catherine starts to unravel, it’s more a case of indecision than anything truly insidious. Stripped of its lurid smokescreen, Chloe is a film that lacks bite.
How much you get out of Chloe will depend heavily on your taste in morals and storytelling. Those who appreciate adult content and mature themes will find it to be a promising thought experiment on love and obsession, albeit one that doesn’t follow through where it needs to. Those who prefer conventional romance or find explicit portrayals of intimacy off-putting will want to steer well clear.
For a horror-laden psychological thriller that explores similar romantic themes, try Black Swan. For a crime drama about a steamy liaison, try Internal Affairs or Stone. For a thriller about an obsessed stalker, try I.T.
6.3 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 for a hit-or-miss cocktail of sex and drama.