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Chloe (2009)

*** (out of 4)

A successful gynecologist (Julianne Moore) begins to think that her husband (Liam Neeson) is having an affair with a much younger woman so she hires a prostitute (Amanda Seyfried) to try and seduce him. The prostitute begins a relationship with the husband so that she can give all the details to the wife who in return begins to have strange feelings towards the woman she hired as well as her husband. This isn't the first erotic movie from Egoyan who splashed on the scene years earlier with EXOTICA, another rather bizarre sex story. This film here isn't all about erotic feelings, although there's certainly a lot of sex talk. I think the most fascinating aspect of the film is Moore's character who is much older in years but seems to be lacking just about everything else. When the relationship starts out we never see the husband and hooker together. The story draws its power from the relationship that blooms between the wife and the hooker. This is so interesting because we're never really given the motives of the wife outside she wants to know if the husband is a cheater. She finds this out rather early yet she keeps sending the prostitute out to get more info. The press for the film milked the fact that Moore and Seyfried ended up in bed with a rather passionate sex scene. This sequence contains two obviously beautiful women yet the scene isn't about the sex but the drama of what their characters are feeling. I think the film never makes too much sense in what it's trying to do but perhaps that was the point. The point to keep us off guard and not sure where the thing is going to go. For the most part I enjoyed the seduction and bizarre relationship, although I must admit that I thought the final fifteen-minutes just went way too far. I'm really not sure if a film and story like this needed an ending or if any ending could have worked but the one they selected just came off way too weak. The best thing about the movie are the performances by the three leads. I've always been hit and miss on Moore as in one film I'll find her to be excellent but then the next I'd see her as lazy. There's no question this here ranks as one of her best performances because of the wide range of emotions she goes through. Her character goes through all sorts of ups and downs and I thought the actress handled them beautifully. I really enjoyed seeing how she handled this character who is pretty much going through a mid-life crisis while figuring out new things about her own sexuality. Neeson is also excellent in his role, although he's not got as flashy a role. Seyfried turns in a terrific performance as well as you have no problem believing her in the role and the level of sexual maturity she provides is certainly a highlight. I thought she and Moore did a terrific job together and you can feel everything their characters are going through. The "twist" in the story is one I caught fairly early on in the picture so if you don't pick up on this I'd say you'd enjoy the film even more. Even though CHLOE is a complete success I do think the performances make it worth sitting through.