Zipper

Zipper isn't specifically about Hillary Clinton, but she and Bill Clinton will to come to everyone's mind while watching this brilliant sexual/political thriller. More broadly, Zipper is about a specific type of woman. The power-hungry woman who will cover up for her husband's sexual infidelities, because she so craves being half of a Washington Power Couple.Zipper is set in the South. Patrick Wilson plays Sam, an admired district attorney with a public image made for politics: Ivy League, squeaky clean, law-and-order, a family man. Everyone says he has a bright political future. Guests at a dinner party half-jokingly discuss his wife Jeannie's (Lena Headey) qualifications for First Lady.But Sam is sexually dissatisfied. Married for 13 years, his sex life with Jeannie has gone stale. She won't experiment. She's content to go through their usual motions.Sam is addicted to internet porn. He's always masturbating to his laptop, at times nearly getting caught.When Jeannie takes away the kids for a weekend trip, Sam caves in to his fantasies and phones an escort service. The first time of many. It becomes an obsession, going to hotel rooms for sex with anonymous women. He's not having an affair. There is no love. It's an addiction -- sex with a series of prostitutes, never the same one twice.After an FBI sting, an enterprising journalist threatens to expose Sam.This is where Zipper's brilliance and originality lies. I had expected the usual story arc. Scandal. Public humiliation. The noble wife files for divorce. Sam's career and family life are destroyed. Duly accepting his chastisement, he emerges a wiser and better man. Perhaps redeemed by taking a humble job serving the community. Meekly phoning his kids on weekends, his ex-wife now with a better husband.NOT!I won't give away the details, but there may be some spoilers here...After Jeannie explodes in the expected screamfest, expressing her hurt and anger at Sam's betrayal, she turns practical and cold-blooded. Determined to save Sam's career -- and their mutual political goals -- Jeannie almost unexpectedly engages in even deeper depravity than Sam, to cover up the scandal and kill the press story.I say almost unexpectedly, because there are hints in Zipper's brilliant and literate script that Jeannie was always the more ambitious of the two, the primary driver of Sam's ambitions. When scandal and destruction seem inevitable, Sam is relieved. It's finally over. He talks of quitting the D.A.'s office and finding a humbler legal job, leading a normal, less stressful life. He promises to "make it up" to Jeannie. But she will hear none of it. She won't dump Sam. Neither will she let him quit.The film flash-forwards several years. Sam is a celebrated and admired Senator. He's in Washington while Jeannie lives in Atlanta. To the public they are a model couple, faithful and loving, yet living apart to better serve the people. Yet we see that it's a marriage of political convenience. And that Sam's continuing "zipper problem" is now an an open secret in political circles, but safely hidden from public view. And presumably everyone with a vested interest in Sam's career, Jeannie included, continue to cover up for him.Patrick Wilson ( Insidious  -- one of the best horror films of this decade) offers an outstanding performance as Sam. Wilson conveys Sam's sincere desire to be the good guy everyone thinks he is. His attempts at fidelity and eventual failure. His mixed feelings about his wife. His grief and panic when he's nearly caught -- and Sam's chilling smugness at film's end, having become a morally bifurcated man who now cheats -- and lies -- with ease and grace.Wilson is especially admirable in the scenes when he contacts and meets his first hooker. He's trembling and sweating outside a convenience story, using a prepaid cell phone, nearly hyperventilating in panic merely for calling an escort service. The scene is effectively supported by a moving camera and quick edits, conveying Sam's queasy guilt -- even his his nearly physical nausea at making the call.The scene with the hooker is also well-down. Sam is nervous, tempted, and hesitant, He nearly backs out, saying that "This is not right. I'm a married man." He begins to redress, but then allows himself to be seduced by the coy and understanding hooker.Zipper is also to be admired for its portrayal of the hookers. We see their professional side -- warm, clever, playful, and understanding to their clients. And we see their candid side -- impoverished, frightened, desperate, and hooked on drugs. We see Sam with a hooker in a glamorous hotel. Then we see her again in her shabby home, after Sam tracks her down. Thus we see both sides of this hooker -- the jaded and carefree woman of the world -- who's only 19 years old -- and the anxious drug addict.Lena Headey's performance as Jeannie is equally admirable. Headey is best known as Queen Cersei in  Game of Thrones , and Jeannie share similarities with Cersei. Jeannie is smart -- she out-performed Sam in law school, but quit her legal career to raise a family and pursue their mutual dreams for Sam's brilliant political career. Headey is warm, proud, and supportive in the early scenes. The model wife. Her growing suspicions, followed by her evident pain over Sam's betrayal, wins our sympathies. But then Jeannie turns fierce, calculating, and cold-blooded -- ruthlessly determined to save the political dreams for which she sacrificed her own career.Headey is known for her skill with accents. She affects a Southern accent in Zipper. It's softer and higher class than her Southern accent in  Laid to Rest  (in which she played a blue collar Southern woman). It's also a more authentic Southern accent, at least to my ears.This isn't the first film featuring a Hillary Clinton archetype. Reese Witherspoon's politically ambitious high school student in  Election  also seems inspired by a young Hillary Clinton. Indeed, Hillary's Clinton is a living embodiment of the  Lady Macbeth  archetype -- a calculating, cold-blooded wife who pursues her political ambitions through a weaker husband.Zipper is a brilliant and timely film. Brilliant because the script avoids the usual clichéd story arc-- a hero's rise and fall and redemption. Zipper offers no redemption for fallen hero, partially because his wife becomes his enabler. Timely because, well, just look at today's political landscape.

Whether you take the concept of 'sex addiction' seriously, there is no doubt some people suffer from obsessive, compulsive behavior disorders, and this film does a fine job of illustrating this. It did need (besides a different name...what were they/she/he thinking?) more of a backstory regarding the lead character that could have better explained his behavior. Of course, some people could simply be born with this predisposition, but the film doesn't do anything in terms of explanations, theories. Kudos though to the underated Patrick Wilson for an excellent performance as the lead. His character's behavior is deplorable, but he still manages to generate some sympathy in his losing battle with his demons and self-loathing. I personally did not find the film cheap or exploitive, but many others have, so proceed with caution.

Patrick Wilson's tour-de-force ! can't believe that IMDB rated this film a mere 5.7 stars (the film is more like 8.0.)Zipper (2015) is a film about Sam Ellis (Patrick Wilson), a federal prosecutor on the move to become a future senator. Sam is married with one son, but his marriage is far from happy. Actually, it is something of a façade in a world where keeping appearances is more than just a game. His wife Jeannie is far more interested in getting her husband elected to U.S. Senate than keeping things afresh in their bed-life. Sam slowly but surely gets pulled into the world of high class escort services, where getting laid can cost you few thousand dollars (think Eliot Spitzer). He tries to resist the temptation, but the sex-addiction to high-class prostitutes is stronger than his will to succeed in career. Things get really interesting when his wife pulls him into the political race (think young J.F. Kennedy)...and nothing will stop her at getting what she wants...because according to Sam's wife belief ---the end does justify the means.The film does a terrific job at portraying white-collar world, which is------ full of hypocrisy, deceit, corruption, where love and self-respect are for sell...for the right price or favor.

Excellent movie from start to finish. I can't stop thinking about it. When this happens to me, which is rare, I always feel compelled to write a review. I honestly don't understand how others don't see the beauty of this powerfully written, directed and well acted film. Lena Headey stole the show, but Patrick Wilson gave the performance of his career in, my opinion. My husband, my friend and I all watched this together and all of us agreed this is a five star. If you can't handle the truth about life, this is not a film for you. It's not pretty. There is a lot of gut wrenching scenes in this movie. But honestly, I give the writer a lot of credit for being brave enough to show the raw side of what it really means to battle sex addiction and the aftermath when the main character finally hits rock bottom. The question is will he/can he change? The question is, does he want to? Highly recommend. I would categorize this under Political EroticThrillers.

I don't know if this movie had a moral or a lesson behind it but I feel that it touched a lot on identity and trying to figure out who you really are and what you really want in life. I was surprised to learn that this film received such negative reviews. I thought it was quite good; for once, I wasn't left wanting more, and Patrick Wilson's performance was awesome. Also, this movie reminds me a lot of Shame (Michael Fassbender) and Deception (Ewan McGregor), both of which, I enjoyed. While I think I understand why the film is called "Zipper," I would like for it to have been named something else. However, I would watch it over and over, and I definitely feel like I got my money's worth on this one!

I'm a french girl, sorry for my errors in english. I' ve liked this movie very much, talentuous actors, an interesting story, a sort of family drama based on the addiction to sex affairs on the part of the husband. He's a brilliant politician but he's addict to sex affairs and that is threatening his carreer.I recommand this movie, a few scenes are quite hot but the whole story is quite good.

excellent !

Have to honest...enjoyed this film but..iam a huge massive ray Winstone fan..just mad about the boy so anything with himself in it works for me !!!!

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