Chloe

Starring Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson

Directed by Atom Egoyan                                                            By Steve Norton

Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language                                    Rating: *** ½  (out of 5)           

            In a world of loss and disconnection, how does one ultimately understand their own humanity?  This question is central to the heart of Atom Egoyan’s Chloe, a haunting sexual thriller that grapples with the complexity of human relationships in a culture devoid of the acknowledgement of the existence of God.

            Set in Toronto (playing itself for once), Chloe tells the story of Catherine and David Stewart (Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson, respectively), a married couple who has seemingly lost all the passion in their relationship with one another.   Even their son, Michael (Max Theiriot), has begun to separate emotionally from his family, living his life primarily from within his room.  A professor, David travels often and, as a result, the ever increasing void of family intimacy appears to go unnoticed by him (or is he simply disinterested?)  Nevertheless, Catherine is convinced that another reason exists.  She believes that her husband is having an affair.  Desperate to find the truth, Catherine creates a simple scenario:  she will hire a prostitute to attempt to seduce her husband.

            It is here that we meet Chloe. 

And it is here that things begin to spiral out of control.

As the relationship between Chloe and David intensifies, so too does her relationship with Catherine.  As a result, Catherine is quickly drawn into this world of deceit and loneliness and is soon caught up in her own web.

            The core of Egoyan’s Chloe is the relational dynamic between David and Catherine and how the introduction of Chloe into the mix creates chaos within their marriage.  Although, through this exploration of relationships, Egoyan’s film also wrestles with the reality of human existence in a world without God.  For example, whereas the centrality of God creates wholeness and intimacy, Egoyan’s Chloe offers us a world of disconnect and broken relationships.  Through David and Catherine’s marriage, Egoyan explores the dangers of our cultural obsession with self-satisfaction and online personas.  An excellent example of this comes through the character of David who, because of his hectic work schedule, is able to have his personal needs met via. interactions (both personal and online) with his adoring students.  What’s more, when Catherine inquires as to what he’s doing, he simply minimizes the conversation, keeping her further away from his other life.  In doing so, he continues to create a divide between himself and Catherine yet even he seems unaware of how it began.  (David himself wonders why, despite their former passion for one another, they “no longer pick each other up from the airport”.)  Ironically, this shattering of intimacy has become all too common in our fast-paced world of constant connectivity.  Although we are wired in all the time, one gets the sense that we are never truly open and honest with one another anymore.  True brokenness and intimacy—key signs of the reign of God—have been lost and, as such, we have been left with falsehood and deception.

What’s more, Chloe also recognizes that, in a world without God, the worship of sexuality has become the ultimate expression of life and reality.   Due to the deep scarring of the loss of intimacy, sexuality rapidly is sold as the answer fill the void and achieve personal wholeness once again.  This is best evidenced in the character of Chloe herself who uses sex to meet other needs that are lacking.  To her, sex is the only way that she knows how to experience life, even if the encounters are based on lies.  (She claims that, in her line of work, she can “be anyone you want [her] to be.”)  To Egoyan, sexuality is what is left when one wants to feel fully human in our society.  However, what’s frightening is how accurate this assumption is.  Although created by God as good and whole, sexuality has become gutted of its original intent.  For instance, in our culture that has become so obsessed with the image, there is little doubt that we have lost holistic love for the other.  This loss of the understanding of the image of God, coupled with the accessibility of pornography through the internet has resulted in a tsunami of sexual addictions, both from outside and within the church.  Like Chloe, our culture has the ability to visualize each ‘other’ in “any way [we] want them to be”.  Nevertheless, with the loss of a healthy understanding of the imago Dei, we have therefore found ourselves as a culture seeking to rediscover our humanity through the creation rather than the Creator.

There’s something lingering about Chloe.  Even after the film is over, it stays with you.  Perhaps it’s the intensity of the film’s emotional core.  Or, more chillingly, perhaps it’s the fact that this particular world is all too real.  And familiar.