Delayed Reaction: Chloe

Premise: A woman involves a prostitute into her personal life when she believes her husband has been cheating on her.

 

At some point, you must ask yourself how good you want erotic thrillers to be. The genre is meant to be titillating and maybe even boundary pushing. No one ever praises an erotic thriller for restraint and playing it safe. If I’m deciding to watch something described as an erotic thriller, I’m not looking for it to have the seriousness of a Moonlight. That’s not to say I expect bad movies. Fatal Attraction is an Oscar movie. It’s over-the-top too. There’s a balance.

 

So, when I turn on Chloe, I have to level set some. It has a great cast with Amanda Seyfried, Julianne Moore, Liam Nesson, and even a little Nina Dobrev. It’s also a movie that had a tiny release and no one remembers it. It’s a Sony Pictures Classic release, which means it’s going to be classier than a Screen Gems release.

 

Where the movie ultimately lost me is in the third act, when Seyfried’s character jumps from mysterious and calculating to screaming and demented. I never really understood her obsession with Moore’s character or why she lies about the affair with Nesson. In fact. Nesson is barely a character. Earlier in the movie, I needed a little more indication that something’s not right with Seyfried. There needs to be a little more calculated scheming or more indication of her extreme fixation with Moore. Instead, the climax of the movie feels like the filmmaker lost patience and had her skip several steps to keep the movie at nearly 90 minutes.

 

Then again, the movie is pretty watchable. I’d almost be afraid of trying to improve it too much and turning it into a boring wannabe prestige movie. I think even the optimal version of this would have problems. Maybe all this movie needs is a rabbit boiling scene. As is, it’s a little dull, even when it turns crazy.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend