dinner and a movie: Chloe

Welcome to my Monday morning recap of my fabulous Friday night date with myself.

I was looking forward to seeing Chloe, even though I didn't know much about it, because I adore Julianne Moore, really like Liam Neeson and have somewhat recently become a fan of Amanda Seyfried. I'm also a big fan of the director, Atom Egoyan.

Here's Chloe in a nutshell: if you know nothing going in, it's a gripping, intriguing psychological and sexual thriller. Apparently if you watched the trailer, you know the film's climax, and I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it. The joy of this film was its twisted journey. The journey isn't amazing enough to shine through spoilers. Here are the barebones details that won't spoil the film's fun for you: Liam Neeson, a music professor, and Julianne Moore, a gynecologist, are somewhat happily married, but she suspects him of cheating. She hires Amanda Seyfriend (Chloe) to seduce Liam Neeson to see if he would fall for it.

After all the drama is an interesting look at marriage, parenthood, loneliness and simple human connection.

Julianne Moore's performance was amazing. I am always amazed at her talent, and I still cannot believe we live in a world where Sandra Bullock has an Oscar and Julianne Moore does not.

I enjoyed the film, but I doubt I would have if I knew what would happen. If it's already been spoiled for you, you might want to wait for dvd to enjoy Julianne Moore's performance.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Running time: 96 minutes
Release date: March 26, 2010 (U.S. limited); see where it's playing
Source: I paid to see it at the Spectrum Theater

After the movie, I strolled two doors down to my favorite Albany restaurant, New World Bistro Bar. For some reason,  I wasn't terribly hungry, so I had a light. I started with the always delicious arugula salad with roasted beets, drunken goat cheese, sunflower seeds and a truffle vinaigrette dressing. For a light supper, I enjoyed the revamped cold seafood sampler. The brand new version includes a taste of the ceviche of the day, some tuna poke, two gravlax bundles, two wasabi tobiko deviled eggs and the tastiest anchovies I've ever had. It was the perfect dish for a light supper, and it was divine with the French rose wine. Yes, one of these weeks I'll remember to take pictures.

Next week: dinner and a movie goes on the road to Providence, Rhode Island!