Why did Chloe lie to Catherine about the job she was hired to do? She was hired to seduce David and she didn't.
Did she not think the money Catherine was offering was enough? I've read a few other threads here and haven't seen this addressed head on.
Thanks,
Ebert says that the point is you don't know what motivates Chloe. She's just this thing that moves in and takes over Moore's life.
This might be Drama-Heresy, but I don't think Moore and Seyfried had good chemistry, except in one certain scene. Otherwise I see two gorgeous actoresses talking to the audience. MAYBE that's because of Ebert's theory that Seyfried is not supposed to come across as a real person.
So Ebert didn't have a clue, either?
shareI think the simple answer is that she liked Catherine, and wanted to spend more time with her, but Catherine would only spend time with her to discuss her husband's supposed infidelity. Therefore, Chloe lied to Catherine so she could continue to spend time with her.
shareShe said at the beginning that she just knew how to read people. It was part of her job. I believe that Chloe could foresee that Catherine would get excited and eventually attached to her, since Catherine wasn't hesitant to hear about what she had been doing to her husband. That's what I got anyway from when Chloe mentioned if the story was turning Catherine on in the hotel.
Basically, he was so good at what she did, that she knew the way to turn Catherine on.
She lied so she could develop a way to spend more time with Catherine plain and simple! Both women had an innate fascination for the other and it built as the movie progressed. Each had totally different motives to begin with but then ended up caught up in their obvious mutual attraction for each other.
Catherine obviously had alot more trouble facing her inner feelings than Chloé did.....until the unfortunate ending. When it all finally became clear to her and she shows us this by wearing the Hairpin
Here is my opinion. Both Chloe and Catherine lied to each other. But only Chole saw through the smoke screen.
Catherine hired Chole to find out if her husband was cheating on her. Even before Catherine meet Chloe, she belived David was having an affair. Catherine was in a weak emotional state when she hired Chloe to suduce David. Catherine may have told Chloe that she wanted to find out if David was cheating on her. But Chloe saw through Catherine's lies.
Chloe saw the truth of what Catherine wanted to do. Catherine wanted to have an affair, and she wanted it with Chloe. She told Chloe that her husband would like her. But the other women in David's life looked nothing like Chloe. Catherine wanted to know everything that David did to Chloe. And when Chloe told Catherine that the two of them had sex. Catherine asked Chloe how did David do it. And as Chloe told Catherine what David did, Catherine started to do what Chloe said.
Catherine lied to herself about what she wanted Chloe to do. It's just Chloe saw the truth about what Catherine wanted. And she fed Catherine's lie and fantasy.
You have a point, eddieinportland. Catherine did seem to repress her feelings and desire.
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Obadiah Obadiah, Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampire
Spot on eddie! You sir also saw through the smoke screen and to the true meaning of this film.
As you said, all along it was Catherine who wanted to cheat and she did have repressed sexual feelings.
The key scenes that people need to pay attention to are at the very beginning of the film when Catherine watches Chloe go in and out of the hotel. She was basically obsessed with her.
The scene in the restroom and also right at the end of the film you can clearly see Catherine still wearing Chloe's broche.
These are all key scenes to understanding the film and I think if people realize this they may find a better appreciation for this film.
~What if this is as good as it gets?!~
treach33 writes: "The key scenes that people need to pay attention to are..."
Actually, Chloe's death scene is very important.
There are four symbolic features to look for
1) the wound to her hand
2) the kiss from Catherine
3) the pose as she falls
4) the halo around her head as the scene cross-fades to the shot of the archway.
Chloe doesn't lie -- she can't. She's an incarnation of Christ.
https://archive.org/details/EgoyansChloeAnAllegoryOfTrueLoveAndDivineLight
"Maybe it's another dimension. Or, you know, just really deep." --Needy
I don't think Chloe did lie. There's nothing specific in the picture that would prove a lie, it's just Catherine's statement which I think she made in a desperate attempt to salvage her marriage, or her picture of her marriage, it's an attempt to make black white.
shareI view it as an open end. We don't know whether David had sex with Chloe or not. We only know he never admitted it, and Chloe didn't admit she lied.
shareI don't know. I didn't like that twist at all. The rest of the movie I loved.
shareAt the start of their interaction, Catherine made a point to cut Chloe off and state clearly that he's not the client. Meaning she was the client. Chloe is a sociopath. So basically she gave the client what she wanted. She got seduced etc.
also, Chloe has issues. It more about having the power of someone needing her than the clients money. Remember how all the times Catherine brought her the payment Chloe never checked to count.
The one who really get's cheated is Chloe: her heart is broken by Catherine, who returns back to David (whom she doesn't love anymore).
It is Chloe's last words in the hotel-room, who are the most revealing of her true identity. She's the victim, and she just realises that. But not of persons, but of a spell. She didn't care about the money, she wanted her feelings responded to by Catherine.
The sociopaths are the family she meets through her encounter with Catherine.
An encounter she believed to be based on love - that turned out to have been based on lust. And frustrated lust to boot. Dad, wife, and son, all three of them.
Crushing Chloe's naive belief that love can once be found.
Therefore she never lies - she even tells the truth if it knowingly brings her in immediate danger.
I agree with @NeedysBoy that Chloe's story-character is a symbolic and mythical one, representing femininity and it's fate in a man's world.