CHLOE

‘Chloe’ has interesting beginning, ending

JULIANNE MOORE (left) and Amanda Seyfred in "Chloe."

Is Amanda Seyfried in every movie filmed these days?
Not that I am complaining. Amanda is very beautiful as well as talented.
And watching her in “Chloe,” I noticed she has the fullest, reddest lips since Mick Jagger.
“Chloe” is dramatic, erotic, entertaining but misses the mark of being a great motion picture.
Julianne Moore plays Catherine Stewart, a successful physician, if you judge her on her spacious, swanky home.
She has a handsome husband, David, played by Liam Neeson, and a musical son, Michael, played by Max Thieriot. Michael, like a few other teens, has an attitude about his parents. Oh yes, and he’s also horny.
Directed by Atom Egoyan, the film opens with the Neeson character lecturing in New York City. He is a college professor who is often hit upon by his female students. A girl, during the discussion, raises her hand and asks if he would be interested in a drink afterward.
Wife Catherine (Moore) meanwhile has a houseful of guests waiting for him in their Toronto home for a surprise party. We see Neeson on the phone with the girl in the background. He’s sorry, he missed his flight, he says.
So the expensive party goes on without the honored guest. But the Moore character is suspicious of hubby. She sees the way his students react to him and how he flirts back, not to mention the texting.
When she sees a photo of an unknown student on his phone, she gets really suspicious.
Often harried at work, seeing all of her patients, she suddenly has a break where she can look down on the city and sees a beautiful, high-priced call girl, played by Seyfried.
Moore arranges a chance meeting in a restroom and engages in conversation. The Moore character wants to know just how far her husband will go with a student.
When you have lots of disposable income, you can do things like hire a hooker, er, escort girl, to come on to your husband and see what happens.
Soon the lovely lipped Seyfried agrees to the plan and reports back. She talks about how she borrowed sugar from his table at a diner and he strolls over to her table to talk to her some more. He’s flirting. The Moore character is intrigued.
So the Seyfried character continues the experiment. She tells of fondling him in the back of a building, a visit to a hotel.
She gets pretty graphic.
Moore is taken back. She decides it has gone too far. She wants it all to stop. But the Seyfried character seems more in control and aware than the much older Moore. She has plans of her own.
The characters are interesting and fully developed. The side story of son Michael is brought into the fold. He has a girlfriend whom Dad allows to spend the night. When they break up, son doesn’t want to hear from Mom.
Ah, but a visit from Chloe would be all right, wouldn’t it?
There are some twists and turns in the plot and Seyfried is showing herself to be a really subtle, first-rate actress, the way she looks, the way she darts her eyes. The way her eyes glint. And to think I used to think of her as just the daughter in HBO’S “Big Love.”
But at some point all of that dirty talk gets a bit repetitive. The escort tells wifie about the latest hubby exploits. She reacts. Lots of restaurant scenes. A good amount of white wine. And lots of mirror, too.
While the film has twists and turns you won’t see coming, the plot could have included a few more subplots or the story trimmed a bit, even though it is only 96 minutes.
But the filmmaker certainly makes the opening and ending of the film interesting and compelling, so I guess we can forgive if the middle sags a bit.
Especially when you can look at Seyfried’s lips.

CHLOE Directed by Atom Egoyan Written by Erin Cressida Wilson and Anne Fontaine Runtime: 96 minutes Rated R for strong sexual content including graphic dialogue, nudity and language 3 stars out of 4