Zipper

I had this movie sitting in my drive for awhile. I knew about the premise (i.e. some hot shot lawyer who cheats repeatedly on his wife) and I wasn't interest. Well...after seeing it, this is overall a good movie because of the strong performances and some semi-provocative little twists near the end that, although predictable, they show some hard truths about the values of the world we are living and how easy is to disavow our values for things that are in the end meaningless. Despite the numerous sexual encounters of the main character the film is not erotic or sensual but focuses into his fear and his inner struggle with his newly developed passion that might cost him everything, his job, his family. But the world we are living ...it is what it is, and in the end, everyone will play the role that he or she supposed to play... Overall: Check it out.

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It's a funny title for a serious film. I have heard the film was loosely based on a real scandal. This is the story of a federal prosecutor whose life has been decent until he becomes addicted to the escort service. As his wife is pushing him for entering the politics, on the other side, he's unable to come out of his new habit. The time comes when both these things can't go together, he has to pick the side and that brings the end to the tale. Really an interesting story aspect, but slightly I was not happy with how it was presented on the screen. Though the characters were excellent and the perfect executions by its actors. Patrick Wilson was good, even in a small screenspace Lena Headey excelled. The other characters influenced quite strongly in the film. Like their intentions over the film events which played a major twist in the storytelling. The people can go any length to achieve the bigger thing is the one of the main messages of the film. The theme was strong, but there were some weaker spots in the narrations. Although, an acceptable and enjoyable film. The end was totally unexpected, but unbelievably not that smart from the character's perspective. Surely an average film, but definitely not a bad or an awesome film. Its about the scandal of a high profile figure or at least trying to be, though everything were told from a single angle. So I hope you watch it and give an honest opinion than going against it from even before the start just because everybody already doing that. 6/10

We found this movie on Netflix streaming. My wife didn't care to finish it but I did and found it to be a rather gripping story. I have been a Patrick Wilson fan for some time, he is mostly overlooked because he makes it look so easy. Here he is Sam Ellis, a politician who is happily married, but he has a "tendency" let's say, to really notice the pretty girls. His wife is played well by Lena Headey as Jeannie Ellis. Sam is in the attorney's office and meets a pretty young lady who is slated to be a witness. Through this Sam learns about the online escort service, and he gets drawn in. Really drawn in, to the tune of $1000 to $2500 per hour with the "escort" who is really a prostitute. The story is about the weakness of a man like Sam, in a powerful position and now being asked to run for US Senate, being unable to process the gravity of what he is doing. Letting the lure of sex with pretty strangers sabotage his marriage and political career. His failure to keep his pants zipped up! Ray Winstone is good as the investigative journalist Coaker and Richard Dreyfuss is good as the old handler George Hiller who is taking Sam as a project to get him elected. SPOILERS: Sam messed up real bad, and Coaker is ready to expose him. But Hiller prevails, Sam is actually elected to the US Senate, and in the last scene his is being admonished to treat this new job with respect, to keep himself out of trouble, to keep his zipper closed. He assures them he will, but as the movie ends we see him going to yet another hotel room to meet yet another "escort".

Most people probably didn't get the symbolic message. When the lawyer pays his visits to whores, he hands them over the envelope full of cash. When from (a supposed morally clean) Prosecutor he evolves to senator, he gets an envelope full of cash, by his clients... Get It? Who are the whores? That's what the movie is about. Hypocrisy from everybody involved. Great movie!

Have a hankering for those 1990s sex thrillers involving powerful people drawn into sordid, beautifully-lit clinches that threaten to tear apart their career and their family? Welcome to Reckless, which has been blandly renamed from "Zipper" in the US. This straight-to-DVD thriller – partly based on the exploits of governor Eliot Spitzer in 2008 – has an intriguing setup which grows increasingly tiresome as the story wears on. Patrick Wilson, who has the greatest fake smile in the business, plays ambitious state prosecutor Sam, and he has his eyes on congress. Unfortunately he also has his eyes on the ladies, and he's willing to risk his marriage to the suspecting Jeannie (Lena Headey) in order to get his end away with a series of escort girls. Meanwhile George (Richard Dreyfuss) is grooming him for life at the top (and life under the microscope), while a wily journalist (Ray Winstone) rifles through his private life. The drama lies in Sam's face as all these pressures – which exist in a highly competitive and masculine world – bear down upon him. Boo hoo, you might say, and you'd kind of be right. While Wilson is talented and nuanced enough to help us relate to this reprehensible talisman of white male privilege, the film itself seems unsure of where its sympathies lie, or indeed what the story is really about. Ostensibly it's interested in the fallout of adultery and the radiation of guilt, but it never goes deep and it's strangely boring. The meaning of fidelity in the modern world has been intelligently explored in some great movies, from Eyes Wide Shut to Gone Girl, but Reckless comes across as mimicry, resembling its peers only in the most superficial ways. The neorealist aesthetic, with its ridiculous saturated colouration, resembles David Fincher or Steven Soderbergh, but the dramatic content only matches the latter at his most indulgent. The serial killer score adds to the tabloid self-importance of it all. The problem with this sub-genre is so often that it suffers from a lack of awareness of its own absurdity. More than once we get a risible speech suggesting that really all human beings are like this, deep down, and that the only difference is that those in the public eye are unfairly held to a higher standard. Never do we get the counterargument: that Sam and his ilk behave this way out of some other impotence, or that their lust for power and sex are two sides of the same character trait. Wilson carries the film, and he's supported by a very fine cast. Headey is solid in the role of Sam's formidable wife, while a miscast Winstone makes the most of a slightly thankless supporting role. Then there's Dreyfuss, who appears to be acting in a movie far smarter than the one we're actually watching. Also, John Cho needs to be in more films. But none of the cast can elevate such hackneyed material. Shoot it however stylishly you want – there's no escaping the clichés of punched steering wheels, illicit phone calls watched from windows, and dead-eyed faces sinking in baths. It's a film to be found when flicking channels, and one to be forgotten within seconds of flicking again.

I made two assumptions while watching this film. One: It was shot in Vancouver. Wrong! Louisiana. Two: It was directed by a woman. Right! Moira Stephens. (Why do all drowned men float to the surface? Because they're all scum! I suspect Ms. Stephens, whose bio on IMDb is rather sketchy, might enjoy that joke. Maybe she originated it.) Nevertheless, this is a sharply done film, well produced, well shot and very well acted. The first half is saturated with excessive and overly graphic sex. Intercourse (missionary and others). Cunnilingus. Masturbation. Nudity. Tits and ass. Other sexual practices for which I know neither the Latin nor gutter terms. It borders on skin-flick *. It's possible to film sexual infidelity with a little less realism than we have here. There is a faint dark current under the whole thing. It made me feel guilty for being a man and, indeed, I rather disliked Sam Ellis and respected and sympathized with his wife. Worth watching but be sure the kids are in bed. Oh...check your husband's whereabouts as well. He said he was going to the bathroom but he probably was next door bonking the neighbor's daughter. Or wife. Or mother. All men, including your husband are...well, you get the message.

This film tells the story of a married lawyer with a promising political career, who gets side tracked by experiences with ladies from an escort agency. "Zipper" keeps me engaged because the I like the story. The first half is more erotic while the second half is more of a thriller. How Patrick Wilson does a good job portraying his character, who lets his urges overtake his sensibility. His guilt in the diner with the reporter is piercingly good. I think the story is well presented, easy to follow and engaging. The scenes are nicely shot as well. I enjoyed watching "Zipper"!