Chloe

I went to see this movie knowing absolutely nothing about it. I usually never do this, not as a principle or anything; I am in the habit of reading Entertainment Weekly, so I usually pick up brief synopses about the movies whether I am intending to or not. But of this movie I had only heard a whole lot of buzz. I knew Amanda Seyfried was in it, along with Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson. So I went to see it with an open mind, thinking that at the very least it would be something to talk about afterward, even if it turned out to be a disappointment.

I still don't know how I feel about it! I don't know whether to be confused or amazed; entranced or disgusted; impressed or repulsed. Overall, the acting performances were strong and it was a very clever script. The plot had lots of delicious twists and turns (but I admit, I saw a lot of them coming). It was super edgy, and because of that I was taken out of the movie at times. It was almost designed to shock. It didn't seem natural. It was as if the director was rubbing the scandal in our faces. I enjoyed the movie a lot up until the end where the main character (Chloe) did something quite (in my opinion) out of character. It just didn't gel with what her character had been known to do up until that point. The film also had quite an abrupt ending. I think it was meant to make the audience think, but it really just left me with a blank stare on my face as the credits rolled.

I talked about the film afterward with my friends Eric and Michael. We all agreed that the problem was there was no character arc in the whole film. All the characters remained in one place, exactly how they were at the start of the movie. We see no change in any of them. It is the plot that winds its way around the stagnancy of the characters. This was disappointing, as many of the characters were very intriguing, but when examined closely they were either boring or underdeveloped (to no fault of the actors; they simply weren't written to have anything beneath a curious surface). It's funny; the movie was interesting, yet completely boring at the same time. Once we riddled out the plot, there was no meaning to it at all! A strange film...