CLIENT 9: THE RISE AND FALL OF ELIOT SPITZER
Written & Directed by Alex Gibney
Produced by Gibney, Jedd Wider, Todd Wider and Maiken Baird
Released by Magnolia Pictures
USA. 118 min. Rated R
 

Based on Peter Elkind’s highly readable Rough Justice, Alex Gibney’s documentary Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer compellingly recounts the New York governor’s fall after it was revealed he was paying for high-priced prostitutes. Gibney—whose earlier Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room also explored the consequences of hubris in men who felt infallible—is sympathetic to Spitzer, building his film around a lengthy interview in which Spitzer speaks sometimes engagingly and candidly about his meteoric career and subsequent fall from grace. But Gibney also approaches his material like any good investigative reporter, rooting out the back story of what happened to Spizter when, as New York governor, he resigned from the position that most experts saw as another stepping stone to his becoming the first Jewish president.

The usual explanation for Spitzer’s downfall is that he was a paragon of virtue who was literally caught with his pants down—the “Sheriff of Wall Street,” who also busted prostitution rings, was himself busted as a high-class escort agency’s ubiquitous Client 9. Gibney calls out Spitzer for his arrogant attitude toward the many enemies he earned while going after Wall Street corruption as New York attorney general and Albany corruption as governor. But men in power (Bill Clinton and John Edwards most recently) usually think without their brains. Although there’s no possible way they will be able to hide their behavior, they go ahead anyway and end up pilloried in the press for their adultery.

Though Client 9 doesn’t exonerate Spitzer for his self-serving, embarrassing actions that could, in the words of one talking head, be used as an asset if he ran for political office in France, it also delves into the lives of his professed enemies, a surprising number of whom agreed to be interviewed by Gibney, who allows them to discharge more shots at the man they loathe so much. Wall Street bigwigs Kenneth Langone and Hank Greenberg, Albany mainstay Joe Bruno, and political operative Roger Stone are shown gleefully frothing at the mouth as they reminisce about Spitzer’s fall.

Gibney also clarifies why the government went after Spitzer while investigating the Emperors Club VIP escort service. Although he technically broke the law, law enforcement officials rarely go after clients, instead zeroing in on those who actually own and run the agencies. In this case, however, with such a big fish caught in its net, the government went after the governor. It’s no coincidence that a Republican administration was in power in Washington, helping to snag a rising Democratic star.

In a revealing interlude, Gibney tracks down one of the escorts, Angelina, who was really Spitzer’s favorite—not Ashley Dupré, the call girl whose face and body (and even singing voice) were all over the news during the media frenzy following the revelations—to tell her side of the story. Since hiding one’s identity is central to Spitzer’s story (he called himself George Fox when securing “dates” from the agency), it’s fitting that we don’t see the real Angelina, but instead an attractive actress, Wrenn Schmidt, who acts out her answers. “Angelina’s” composure and intelligence contrast with the giggly co-owner of the Emperors Club VIP, Cecil Suwal, the twentysomething who embarrassedly laughs whenever she’s heard from.

Client 9 presents a solid if not airtight case that vengeance, along with hubris, took down Spitzer. After all is said and done, it’s not for nothing that the former governor himself brings up the name Icarus to illustrate his own downfall. Kevin Filipski
November 5, 2010