Butler's Cinema Scene

Patrick Wilson, Dianna Agron

“ZIPPER” My rating: B- 

103 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“Zipper” is an astonishingly dour thriller with a torn-from-the-headlines premise.

Patrick Wilson stars as Sam Ellis, a federal prosecutor with a squeaky-clean reputation who is contemplating a career in politics.

He’s a white knight in the courtroom and has what appears to be an ideal family life with his charity maven wife Jeannie (Lena Headey) and their young son.

When a comely office intern (Dianna Agron) makes a pass at him, Sam throws on the brakes after one kiss. Arriving home late at night, though, he cruises porn sites. When a case brings to his attention a high-end escort service,  he begins doing “research.”

Next thing you know he’s paying big bucks for a few hours with these smart, beautiful, sexually talented young women.

Sam apparently can’t control himself. Part of him hates what he’s doing; another part is coming up with all sorts of devious ploys to allow him to keep on doing it.

There comes a moment, of course, when the noose of revelation tightens around Sam’s neck (thanks to a sleazy journalist played by Ray Winstone). Are his marriage and career on the chopping block?

Patrick Wilson, Lena Headey

Writer/director Mora Stephens takes an approach that is part Hitchcock, part “Primary Colors.”  She plays it all very seriously (frankly I could have used a few light moments).  But Stephens makes a real effort to make Sam more than a cardboard philanderer.

The sex scenes are pretty explicit, with the escorts coming off as happy, adventurous examples of young sexual womanhood. Late in the proceedings Stephens exposes the flip side of that male-pleasing fantasy.

Plus, she’s assembled a killer supporting cast with such recognizable faces as Richard Dreyfuss, John Cho, and Christopher McDonald.

In the end “Zipper” offers little comfort. Nobody in this film gets off without selling out.

| Robert W. Butler