TxMike We found this movie on Netflix streaming. My wife didn't care to finish it but I did and found it to be a rather gripping story.I have been a Patrick Wilson fan for some time, he is mostly overlooked because he makes it look so easy. Here he is Sam Ellis, a politician who is happily married, but he has a "tendency" let's say, to really notice the pretty girls.His wife is played well by Lena Headey as Jeannie Ellis. Sam is in the attorney's office and meets a pretty young lady who is slated to be a witness. Through this Sam learns about the online escort service, and he gets drawn in. Really drawn in, to the tune of $1000 to $2500 per hour with the "escort" who is really a prostitute. The story is about the weakness of a man like Sam, in a powerful position and now being asked to run for US Senate, being unable to process the gravity of what he is doing. Letting the lure of sex with pretty strangers sabotage his marriage and political career. His failure to keep his pants zipped up!Ray Winstone is good as the investigative journalist Coaker and Richard Dreyfuss is good as the old handler George Hiller who is taking Sam as a project to get him elected.SPOILERS: Sam messed up real bad, and Coaker is ready to expose him. But Hiller prevails, Sam is actually elected to the US Senate, and in the last scene his is being admonished to treat this new job with respect, to keep himself out of trouble, to keep his zipper closed. He assures them he will, but as the movie ends we see him going to yet another hotel room to meet yet another "escort".

ValerinAmberz I saw this movie after having watched the 5.7 IMDb rating. I found myself glued to it from the beginning until the end. Afterwards I couldn't understand what's about it that people supposedly don't like. The movie touches a subject that while probably very common in real life you seldom see portrayed in movies. Sex-addiction. I can only remember seeing it once or twice before, in the awful and overrated Nymphomaniac, and in the decent Auto Focus by Paul Schrader. This was easily the most entertaining one. Great actors all around. Among them a hardly recognizable Richard Dreyfuss, in a serious part. The movie maybe occasionally had a TV-movie feel to it, not that it mattered, the dialogue and ending kept you thinking. Many memorable lines. If you liked House of Cards I think you're gonna like this movie as well. Even if the main character isn't quite as psychotic as the lead from that show. 8 out of 10

hami5150 Somewhat typical drama about another rich and powerful man becomes a hypocrite. The difference with this film is that just about everyone else in the film is a hypocrite as well.What the film does well... the acting, cinematography, and the script (to an extent). I do enjoy nudity, and this movie does do it in a way that isn't over the top and overly graphic. The problems I had with the film were that it's another film about how rich and powerful men do pretty much whatever they want and get away with it, while all the women in the film are weak "whores". They get what they want by using sex, be it for drugs or power, and in the end it still gives the impression that's all they are really good for, which is surprising being that the film was directed by a woman. While it does deliver a message that you can be a "whore" in more ways than just having sex for money, it still doesn't exactly "punish" the hypocrites, but rather seems to blame the weak. Which, I suppose, is what life is actually like. I found myself feeling only for one character, and that was Jennifer. It isn't because she is gorgeous (which she is, but so were just about all the women), but because she was the one that not only was the most innocent, but also the one that was taken advantage of the most. And when Ellis had the chance to help her, he chose rather to treat her even less like an escort and more like a streetwalker, especially after seeing that she had a drug problem and exploiting that weakness. But even after she made clear that she actually liked him, and even after he treated her like a hooker, she still showed some real emotion and humanity. What makes the scene even more powerful is that is shows that Ellis is even more of an addict, yet is still the one in power and control. If the aim of the film was to cast a light on how misogynistic hypocrites can continue their addictions without any real recourse since some one (in particular, a woman) will come to their "rescue" by whoring themselves, then this movie did a great job. I gave the 8 stars based solely on the fact that the film was very well done technically and the acting was worthy of praise, but the ending fell flat and just played into more stereotypes, which even independent films are falling prey to now.

in1984 7.25 of 10. A solid R-rated political drama/thriller, with a twisted tragic/happy ending, figuratively and literally.How does a well-informed government attorney familiar with the ways powerful people get caught and tracked in various levels of crimes get caught having illegal sex? Herein lies one way that doesn't involve any hacking or computer errors. It also provides an unexpected way out.A few downsides like it doesn't make the location very clear, which is important when doing political stories with a close connection to reality, only briefly near the beginning indicating it's South Carolina. The rest of the way it could be any US urban/suburban area. They also opted to rarely use regional accents. And finally there's the bad product placement issues. None of it enough to stop the film from being worth watching, but it does stand in the way of something worthy of awards.