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Reel Toronto: Chloe
Toronto’s extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn’t always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.
Have you ever seen a movie you wanted to love but ended up just kinda liking and respecting? That was Chloe for us. It’s well-acted, it’s one of the most accessible things Atom Egoyan has done, and, most importantly to us, it’s probably the best-ever representation of Toronto on film. Ever. And yet, somehow we just weren’t grabbed by it. Scott Pilgrim may unseat it later this summer, but for now, we can heartily recommend Chloe as a better-than-average yarn which sets a new standard for cinematographically stroking Toronto.
Probably the most striking single location is the home in which Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson live. It overlooks a ravine, so when we saw it, we assumed it was in Rosedale, but the interiors, gorgeous and glassy, are in a Drew Mandel–designed home on Heathdale, overlooking the Cedarvale Ravine.
It allows for some cool shots.
In this article, the architect mentions that the owners wanted to preserve at least a modicum of privacy, so the house used for shots of the front is actually this one, just down the street. (You can take your own Google Walk down the street and try to find the glass house, but we’ll respect the owners’ wishes.)
Something else you’d likely miss is that the bedroom is actually a recreation on a set.
The location that gets the second most amount of face time is the lovely Windsor Arms. We see it from the outside…
…the inside…
….the tea room…
…and the Prime Steakhouse.
We’re sure the people at the hotel will be thrilled we’re letting you know precisely where to go if you want to have your own Chloe-esque tryst.
Sharing the hotel love a little bit, this is outside the Royal York.
Also getting a lot of screentime are the streets of Yorkville. Julianne Moore plays a highfalutin gynecologist, with an office in this building.
When she looks out her window, she sees our title character coming down this walkway…
…and follows her into the Hazelton’s fancy bar, One.
This arch, just across Avenue Road, sometimes appears in movies as something kind of European, but here it’s just itself, part of The Prince Arthur condos.
A pair of key confrontations take place on College Street…
…and inside Café Diplomatico.
These bar scenes were shot at the very hip LeVack Block.
If you’re cool enough to visit Torontoist, you sure know that this is The Rivoli restaurant, but we also see…
…the back room….
…and Queen West exterior.
Here’s a sexy li’l makeout scene…
…in the Allan Gardens greenhouses.
This concert is at the very lovely Mazzoleni Hall, at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
After the show, Julianne Moore leaves…
…and cuts across the top of Philosopher’s Walk, in front of the ROM.
Chloe goes to visit the unhappy couple’s kid, playing hockey at Riverdale Park.
Chloe takes a phone call at the very picturesque corner of Dundas and McCaul, showing Alsop’s OCAD, Gehry’s AGO, and, of course, the CN Tower.
We’re not film critics—with the movies we usually have to watch, we couldn’t be—but we can say that if you’re reading this column, you’d almost certainly dig Chloe on some level. You like artsy films with a bit of nudity? Even better. We’re hoping that, at the very least, others will learn from Egoyan’s very valuable example.