“Chloe” is a curious trailer for me. It stars three incredibly talented people — Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried — in what looks to be only a marginally interesting seductive thriller. Wife thinks husband is cheating on her, so she hires a hooker to tempt him to see if he’ll stray. Tables are turned, lies are told, and there’s bound to be a twist or two.
There is. It’s that the film is directed by Atom Egoyan. What?! I’ve only seen one of his films, the brilliant 1997 film “The Sweet Hereafter,” and while none of his later films have looked like they measure up, I’ve always regarded him as a director to eventually seek out and watch seriously.
“Chloe” looks like B-material from him, and yet, now I really want to see it. I watched the trailer again after realizing it was him. His name has a certain tone and maturity attached and instead of (unfairly? cynically? correctly?) assuming the scenes and story hinted at in the trailer’s clips are plodding and uninteresting, I look at them thinking about what someone like Egoyan could do with them. Indeed, when you boil it down, “The Sweet Hereafter” sounds like a plodding movie, too. Bus full of kids die, lawyer comes to town to make a profit. Egoyan directs movies you can’t take at face value or trust to your initial impressions. In fact, from what I know about them, that’s sortof what many of his films are about.
It is with that that I say a resounding “Hmmm…” to “Chloe.”
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I’m intrigued.