August 30th in Chicago. It appears that I managed to view two films over the weekend that both began with the letter Z that was On Demand. What are the odds. To be honest I thought this was a sexy political thriller but there weren't enough thrills, plenty of sex though, it moved a bit slow at times and despite being only 103 minutes, my attention faded in and out.Which stands to reason because Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 19%.
The film was written & directed by Mora Stephens and has a pretty good cast that includes; Patrick Wilson, Lena Headey(Jeannie), Ray Winstone (Coaker) and Richard Dreyfuss (whom I thought quit acting). Yet somehow the film just isn't that good maybe not as bad as a 19% rating but not that good.
Wilson plays US Attorney Sam Ellis, a no nonsense prosecutor who appears to be the ultimate family man. He's such a family man that he's got issues with porn. The issue being he likes it. A lot. When deposing a witness who happens to be an escort, Sam is not only turned on by the lovely escort but his interest is piqued about escort services. Eventually Sam grows tired of masturbation and decides to give an escort service a try (predictably so) when his wife and son leave for the weekend. I will never understand where the workaholic male protagonist in film gets the time time to have extra-marital affairs and who has a beautiful wife at home whom he feels the need to go out and cheat on despite the fact the wife gives no indication that she's not interested in sex...
It must be so such a difficult life. I can totally see why Sam would want to step out n Jeannie.
Sam has 2nd thoughts during his first "appointment" but eventually he caves in and even goes as far as becoming a regular customer. Sure enough, Sam becomes so obsessed with escort sex and he maxes out his credit cards. Things come to a boil when he spots a surveillance van outside the hotel and gets hits by a car when he aborts his "appointment." Sure enough, his wife Jeannie gets jealous and sends Coaker, a political reporter who's a family friend, to do some digging. Sam dodges a bullet when the investigation that he could have gotten snagged in comes up empty. But before he can breathe a sigh of relief, Coaker confronts him with his infidelities. Sam is ready to come clean, give Coaker the story he's drooling for, resign his position in the Justice Department and give up his political career. Before Coaker can publish the story, Jeannie makes a last minute deal with Coaker and he changes the story to what a great politician Sam would make. Try and guess what Jeannie offered to get Coaker to change his mind...
Coitus. The physical act of making love.
Fast forward to where Sam is now a US Senator and he's meeting with Richard Dreyfuss and Dreyfuss tells him that he needs to get his"zipper" problem under control. Same tells him that its no longer an issue but the last scene sees Sam in a hotel, taking off his wedding ring about to knock on the door.
It would appear that the moral of the story is that sex addicts will remain sex addicts. I guess. The film tries to be a sexy political thriller but it fails It's not even a cautionary tale because Sam doesn't change (the parallels to Eliot Spitzer are pretty heavy handed). In the end, I didn't really care abiut any of the characters. None of them were redeeming. Sam is a cheating husband, Jeannie wants the image of a politicians wife (she comes from a politically powerful family and has delusions of Jackie Kennedy) and Coaker is the sleazy reporter who compromises his integrity to sleep with Jeannie.
The film essentially hits a fly ball that you think has a chance to be a home run but it doesn't have enough to make it the warning track. Pass on this.
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