Chloe

Toronto gynecologist Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore) plans a surprise birthday bash for her peripatetic music professor husband, David (Liam Neeson), but when he misses his flight home—arriving long after the guests have left—she suspects he's having an affair, especially after she intercepts a questionable text message. To test her theory, Catherine hires a call girl Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) to engage David in conversation at his favorite coffee shop. Doe-eyed Chloe does what she's asked and reports on their brief encounter to Catherine, who instructs her to continue with the entrapment trysts. Soon Catherine not only becomes obsessed with Chloe's meticulously detailed sexual accounts but also finds herself aroused by this alluring young woman, who adds a dimension of betrayal by openly flirting with Catherine and David's rebellious teenage son (Max Thieriot). Having explored kinky sexual landscapes before in Exotica, artsy Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan creates a glossy, evocative ambiance for the lesbian seduction storyline central to Erin Cressida Wilson's screenplay (based on Anne Fontaine's French film Nathalie). But despite convincing performances from Moore and Neeson, as well as an impressively enigmatic and beguiling characterization by Seyfried, this psychosexual thriller turns out to be little more than a sordid, tediously slow story of a tormented woman. An optional purchase, at best. (S. Granger)