Many people think you have to be crazy to go into politics these days. Your entire life is on display and under the microscope constantly, not to mention the pressures of public service itself. Zipper gives us an imagined peek behind the curtain.
Patrick Wilson plays Sam Ellis, a strong-willed, idealistic federal prosecutor. Everyone, including his wife Jeannie (Lena Headey), is pushing him to run for a spot as a U.S. senator. As he nervously agrees and begins being groomed, he starts a bad habit of using a high-class escort service, which threatens to derail everything he's trying to accomplish.
Zipper seems perfectly placed after the success of Steve McQueen's Shame and the popularity of Netflix's House of Cards. Here, the darkness combines into a gritty, cynical picture of politicians and the pressures put upon them by modern society. The acting from the cast is superb, particularly from Wilson and Headey. On the surface, Sam is a sex-addicted corrupt politician slowly spiraling out of control. It takes the right combination of charm, good looks, and emotion to turn him into someone we root for (or at least feel sorry for). Wilson accomplishes all of this deftly, mixing Sam with the right amount of outward confidence and inward panic. Headey mostly plays the stereotypical politician's wife until the last third where I couldn't help be reminded of Headey's famous turn as the ruthless and calculating Cersei Lannister on Game of Thrones.
There is no happy ending here. Zipper drives home (perhaps too openly) that politicians today can be neither trusted nor idolized. It hints that perhaps that is our own doing as we place our representatives on pedestals and hold them to higher moral standards than anyone else. Or, at least, that's how Sam explains it to himself. Zipper is a thrilling ride worth watching "“ just don't expect to leave with the warm fuzzies about politics today.
