ZIPPER

Actor Patrick Wilson could pass for disgraced ex New York Governor Eliot Spitzer if the lighting was just right, but this rather clumsy drama that is either based or inspired by Spitzer's downfall, just couldn't ever be mistaken for the real thing.  Wilson plays Sam Ellis who is a Federal prosecutor who is on the fast rack in national politics.  He has all the right attributes : successful high-profile career, charm, handsome as hell with a clean-cut family man image. Most important though he has Jeanne his well-connected wife who is fiercely ambitious for them both and she is a ruthless operator who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. In this instance its to get her husband chosen for the Senate seat that is about to become vacant and as she constantly reminds him, she gave up her own career/life to further his, so he owes her big time.

Their marriage however is not just loveless but its also devoid of any sexual activity which Ellis doesn't seem to mind as long as he got some porn to get off too. However when in the course of an investigation into a high-class escort agency he starts to realise what he is missing and so the moment Jeanne announces she is going away for the weekend, he makes the call for a 'date'.

When he arrives for his session, Ellis goes through this whole routine of trying not to go through with it, but the girl talks him into staying and he does saying telling himself that its just a one off time.  Trouble is that he is hooked and although he has to go through a whole elaborate routine to avoid being caught or traced, he discovers he is very soon addicted to the sex. 

On one occasion about to have his latest assignation (he makes a point of never seeing the same girl) he spots undercover FBI Agents in the Hotel lobby and he abrupt leaves in a panic suspecting that a 'sting' is about to go down.  However when the Agents call at his Office the next day to confirm that they are indeed in the middle of an investigation as they have traced huge amounts of money leaving there to pay the Escorts, it is in fact Ellis's boss they suspect.

It's obvious though that the trap is tightening and he will get found out as even the journalist that Jeanne has persuaded to write a big profile piece on Ellis will soon uncover the truth about the his secret life too.

One of the problems is that even if we accept the old cliche that many men let their brains and hearts be led by their penises, it still does not explain all the irrational and ill-conceived decisions that the normally circumspect and restrained Ellis took. However a more alarming aspect of this somewhat cliche-ridden plot were the chunks of stilted and utterly ridiculous dialogue that actually had the audience at Sundance inappropriate laughing out loud. 

Not quite the reaction of Jeanne when she eventually finds out what had really been going on and she lays into her husband and his car with a baseball bat before then fixing things with everybody so that even if they will never live happily after, she will at least still get to be a Senator's wife.

By far the best thing about this very predictable drama that may touch on the veins of 'House of Cards' but is instead a mish-mash of a sex & politics thriller, is Patrick Wilson. He shines even with this poor material and is the only reason that one would want to sit through this movie. Oh yes and Lena Headey as Jeanne who shows she can bitch like the best of them. 

★★★★

ARGO

In 1979 at the height of the Iranian unrest angry mobs in Tehran stormed the US Embassy taking the 52 members of staff hostage. Unbeknown to the militants 6 members of the Visa Department, which had it’s own street entrance, managed to escape and were given refuge by the Canadian Ambassador and his wife in their official residence.  Both the US and Canadian State Departments knew that their  disappearance would soon be discovered by the Iranian militia so they asked the CIA to come up with a  rescue plan.

The CIA’s Director turned to Tony Mendoza a exfiltration specialist who had the extraordinary idea of creating a fake movie project that would serve as a cover story to get the trapped staff safely out of the country.  When forced to defend his plan to the Secretary of State himself to get final clearance for the ‘Hollywood Project’, Mendoza agreed that it all seemed like a really ludicrous idea, but it was, he assured the Secretary, the best of all the bad ideas that the Intelligence experts could come up with.  And with that, the CIA entered the movie business.

To make the operation seem legit, Mendoza contacted an old friend who was a real Make Up/Prosthetics Artist, who in turn linked him to an award-winning Producer who came on board to give credibility to the movie that they would pretend to be scouting for locations in Tehran for.  They found a Sci-fi Script that could work as it was set in a middle-eastern terrain, and then they created film resumes and jobs for each of the six staff.  Then complete with brand new Canadian passports, Mendoza flew off to Iran to perform the seemingly impossible task of whisking them away right under the militants nose.

The trapped officials who had been keeping up with the news of the escalating violence and the brutal street executions of anyone who the Regime suspected of being against, were so nervous of Mendoza’s plans, that several of then turned him down flat.  It however soon seem clear to them that they had no choice but to chance their arm and take the risk of being caught and tortured to death, because they also knew that their hiding place would soon be discovered.

In this wonderfully totally tense nail-biting thriller nothing is ever going to really go to plan.  Even when Mendoza finally persuades all six that they should trust him, his Director tells him that The White House has pulled the plug and that he must cease the covert operation.  But does he, and if so, will he pull it off?  Trust me you will not want to know until it happens and you are on the edge on your seat in the movie theater with white knuckles grasping the arm rests!  Its an exhilarating ride and the telling of this story is as well executed as the actual operation itself.

This is Ben Affleck’s movie through and through and he is proving to be an outstanding Director … first 'Gone Baby Gone', then 'The Town', and now this rather stunning political thriller.  Affleck also stars as Mendoza but its a very cool understated performance that I suppose one would expect from a professional CIA Operative in the field.  He surrounds himself with a great cast, but the two that shine out are the irrepressible John Goodman as the jovial Make Up Artist, and the hilarious deadpan Alan Arkin as the Producer who provide the unexpected, but very necessary, humor to the story.

In filming this story based on a true life incident Affleck captures not just the authentic look of Iran (its actual filmed in Turkey) but the real feel of the period itself.  Mendoza's covert action was kept secret way past the 'big story' of the day ...... the release of all the Embassy staff after a whopping 444 days in captivity which had (almost) the whole world celebrating ....and all the unknown factors about what actual happen a complete surprise until the final credits role.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Argo doesn't get a Best Picture Nomination at the Academy Awards.  It is that good!

P.S. Months after I wrote this, it won 3 Oscars.

★★★★★★★★★★

SHADOW DANCER

This political /crime drama is set in 1990s Belfast, and when Colette McVeigh an active member of the IRA is caught red-handed planting a bomb at an London Underground Station she is 'persuaded' to become an informant for the MI5 in order not just to remain free but to protect her young son's welfare. Her whole family is very involved in terrorist activities and when the authorities ambush one of their operations they suspect a traitor in their midst and Colette senses she is in real danger. But in this fast-paced well-written thriller there is a rather inspired twist in the plot which sets this above most movies in this genre.

American viewers often struggle understanding even the most straight forward English accents so I’m not sure how on earth they are going to cope with this movie which is a narrative about 'The Troubles‘ (the term used for the IRA's armed uprising in Northern Ireland) where most of the characters speak with thick Ulster brogues. This new movie also seemed an odd choice for director James Marsh who picked up an Oscar in 2009 for 'Man On A Wire' (which he followed with the chimp movie 'Project Nim'.)

Clive Owen stars as a British Secret Service Agent, and UK based American Gillian Anderson is his boss, and luckily for us they don’t have to attempt accents.  Andrea Riseborough plays Colette rather stunningly, so luckily for her there is life after starring in Madonna’s heavily panned 'W/E'.  Accents aside it's a rather good nerve-racking yarn, and well worth seeing.

P.S. Reprinted from my SUNDANCE 2012 BLOG as the movie is now showing in US theaters.

★★★★★★★★

FAIR GAME

Once all the gung-ho members of George W’s gun slinging gang of cronies decided to go to War in Iran on the most misguided of excuses they need a pretext to justify their actions.  Scrabbling around to uncover any minute bit of evidence they seized on reports that Niger, an African nation, had sold uranium to Iraq.  The CIA sent out Joe Wilson, a former US Ambassador to investigate, and he reported back that there was absolutely no truth in the rumors.  But when did facts and the truth ever get into the way of government policy, so we went to War regardless with Bush quoting the (non-existent) uranium sales as a justifiable reason.

Joe Wilson sat watching on the sidelines for some time and then when he could bear it no longer wrote an Op-Ed article for the NY Times reporting what he actually had found in Niger i.e. nothing, and the Bush Administration went ballistic.  They leaked to the Press that Wilson was married to Valerie Plame and outed her as a top covert CIA operative with dire consequences for all her contacts in the field and irreparable damage to Plame’s livelihood which ended up almost wrecking her marriage too.

This is a stunning movie of a potent real live drama that factually demonstrated the sheer lengths that the Administration … and particularly Vice President Cheney  … would go to cover up the distorted facts as to why this country (readily abetted by Tony Blair, the UK ’s PM) entered into an unjustifiable war that resulted in so many needless deaths.

R.T.V. Naomi Watts and Sean Penn are terrifically convincing as Plame and Wilson and this is as much a story about the Wilson’s relationship as  it is about the political shenanigans.  Brilliantly directed it is a stunning movie and the only reason that I hesitate to use the term ‘very entertaining’ is because you never ever stop thinking that this great story is not a figment of some talented writer’s imagination and it is very much real life, scary as it is.

★★★★★★★★