Posts tagged Spanish
“Chloe” Raises Questions about Sexual Fidelity
Mar 31st
“Raises Questions about Sexual Fidelity”
CHLOE is a domestic thriller and a sexual suspense film that raises questions about sexual fidelity, but the answers are much too nicely tied up at the end to prevent any embarrassment to the characters.
Or confusion for the audience, either, for that matter.
Julianne Moore plays Catherine, a successful gynecologist in Toronto, and the story begins with her arranging a surprise birthday party for her husband, David, who is played by Liam Neeson.
David is a college professor, and he is in New York City giving a lecture on opera. When a pretty girl asks him out to dinner after the lecture, David changes his plans to fly directly back to Toronto and thus misses the surprise birthday party that Catherine was giving for him.
The next morning back in Toronto, David lies to Catherine and tells her that he missed his flight back and that was why he was late getting home.
However, Catherine sees a text message on David’s phone that says, “Thanks for last night. Miranda.”
Catherine doesn’t confront David about his lie, but instead does something more drastic. David has always been too flirtatious with women he just meets to suit Catherine, and she suspects that he is cheating on her.
So, when Catherine meets Chloe, a high-priced call girl played by Amanda Seyfried, Catherine hires Chloe to “accidentally meet” David, just to see what David will do and then report back to Catherine.
Well, you can see where this is going, can’t you?
Or maybe not.
Chloe and David meet a second time, but when she reports back to Catherine, Catherine says that she shouldn’t have involved Chloe in this, she made a mistake, and she tells Chloe to stop.
However, something happens which causes Chloe not to stop, and the relationship between her and Catherine changes. Not only that, but when Chloe is at Catherine’s office, Chloe meets Catherine’s teenage son, Michael, and a fourth major character enters the messy situation.
For what it is worth, this film by Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan is based on a 2004 French-Spanish film called NATHALIE, which has been called a “pretentious character study,” but which I have not seen.
CHLOE kept me guessing right up until, oh, about the halfway point when I figured out what was going on, and then I lost interest.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Broken Embraces – Movie Trailer
Feb 1st
A follow-up to Spanish enfant terrible Pedro Almodóvar’s 2006 arthouse sensation Volver, Los Abrazos Rotos finds the filmmaker re-teaming with actress Penelope Cruz and working on a canvas much broader than those of his previous outings, in terms of genres covered, narrative scope, and duration. Lluís Homar stars as the former Mateo Blanco, a screenwriter and ex-director who changed his name to Harry Caine after losing his sight in an automobile accident. A past scandal suddenly resurfaces when the news arrives that the producer of one of Harry’s old movies (“Girls and Suitcases”), a corrupt stockbroker named Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gómez), has died. For mysterious reasons, this makes Harry’s ex-production manager Judit (Blanca Portillo) nervous; then Ernesto’s son, Ray X (Ruben Ochandiano), turns up and asks Harry to help him write a vindictive script to get back at his vile father. The film subsequently flashes back to the early ’90s, when Martel became involved with his secretary, Lena (Cruz), but Mateo also began to develop feelings for her, and auditioned her for “Girls and Suitcases.” In response to Mateo’s interest in Lena (and her burgeoning interest in him), the jealous Martel commissioned Ray to make a documentary about the making of “Girls and Suitcases” as an excuse to spy on the director and star. This enabled him to watch Mateo spiriting off with Lena right under his nose, and set the stage for the wily producer’s elaborate revenge against Mateo. As this synopsis suggests, Almodóvar uses a tricky structure laden with flashbacks to both comment on and explain the events of the present; he also interweaves a noirish sensibility throughout the picture that marks something of a first for this director.
Up to Date News
Sep 21st
Valencia, Spain, Pope Benedict XVI criticizes the Spanish for legalizing gay marriage, on the other side of the galaxy HAT-P-1 the largest planet known but is so far away that its not much to report on. Dubai, United Arab Emirates delay money transfers due to suspecting terrorists just because of the peoples names. Great Britain, John Rushton suggest that women are not as smart as men. Chicago, are fat people really as jolly as they are set out to be? And Boulder, is it a jungle?