Chloe (2009)

This movie is stylish (wardrobe, sets, locations), moody (suspicious, depressed), cold (Toronto in the winter), and hot (most definitely R rated for nudity and sex), and Jack and I found it entertaining, though the only laughs were a couple of lines by Julianne Moore's character's colleague. The music by Mychael Danna (most of director Atom Egoyan's work, Being Julia (2004), Capote (2005), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Lakeview Terrace, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and many more of high quality) is also stylish and moody. Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies (2005) was similarly about deceit and sex (I had meant to see Exotica (1994) and his Oscar nominated The Sweet Hereafter (1997) but never did). The screenplay was adapted by Erin Cressida Wilson, who wrote the wonderful Secretary (2002), from the French movie Nathalie... (2003). Moore's Catherine is so tightly wound that she rarely smiles, exhibiting a different kind of desperation than in A Single Man (I wrote more about her for that role, though now I should mention she can do comedy: her two recent 30 Rock episodes proved it). Luscious Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls (2004), the HBO series Big Love, and Mamma Mia are the ones I've seen) gives the titular Chloe depth and heart as well as her astounding beauty and a showcase for great clothes. Poor Liam Neeson (some of my faves: Husbands and Wives (1992), Schindler's List (1993), and Kinsey (2004)) lost his wife Natasha Richardson (Vanessa Redgrave's daughter) to a skiing accident in the middle of shooting this (March 2009), but insisted on finishing anyway and we would never had known he was suffering behind his role as Catherine's husband David. The settings of the bars, restaurants, and particularly the boxy modern home in which Catherine and David live with their teenage son (Max Theriot) are spectacular. The reviews of this have been quite mixed (I'll put in some links but there are tons of spoilers). The normally positive Los Angeles Times was negative, almost as unkind as Rolling Stone. The New York Times didn't like it much either (why do these reviewers insist on telling so much plot?!?) but you should watch the little video that's on the left side about halfway down the web page. It's narrated by Egoyan, about Toronto "playing itself" for a change. Rottentomatoes.com averaged the 36% positive critics with the 70% positive viewers and came up with 51%. So that makes us pretty average for liking it.