In a potent reminder of recent history, Fair Game shows the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame and its aftermath.
Naomi Watts deserves Oscar gold for her riveting performance as Plame. Best Actor Sean Penn does the honors as Plame’s ambassador husband Joe Wilson.
Fair Game roils with emotion and action as a public service career ends, a marriage hits the rocks, reputations are shredded and lives are lost overseas. It puts a personal face on the U.S. invasion of Iraq, where ideology apparently justified the use of false pretenses.
Doug Liman’s film will anger viewers whether they believe the war was necessary or not in the fight against terror. Fair Game is a fact-based story of two patriots who stood up to power. It reveals cowardice in the White House and the media.
Watts’ spot on rendition of Plame shows the foreign operative, wife and mother live through trying and dangerous days. The film is based on the memoirs of both Plame and Wilson.
Penn channels his righteous social anger into the persona of diplomat Joe Wilson. A subtext considers whether Wilson revealed the no wmd (weapons of mass destruction) bombshell to The New York Times out of patriotism, or to compete with his successful wife.
After Wilson speaks out, his family’s safety is compromised. The diplomat shares his plight, and his idealism, with fresh faced political science students.
Liman (The Bourne Identity) brings immediacy to the action. Fall guy Scooter Libby (David Andrews) brings to life the power-drunk, alternate reality of the Vice President’s inside circle. Bruce McGill plays a career intelligence official who consoles Plame, sharing his insights into the way things work at the highest levels of the U.S. government.
Some fictional elements were added, including a sub-plot about an Iraqi doctor (Liraz Charhi) and her brother (Khaled Nabawy), a former nuclear engineer living in bombed out Baghdad.
Fair Game will rank with All The President’s Men as a taut, fine description of everyman facing Washington power, even though truth and justice does not prevail in the more recent scenario.
Following the film’s release, Wilson appeared on The Chris Matthews Show and other national news programs. He expressed the hope that Fair Game reminds viewers to speak out against tyranny. Facing personal threats to one’s way of life is part of the price of democracy, he said.
If you like Fair Game, you might enjoy: Casino Jack; Greenberg; Please Give.
Fair Game 2010 / PG-13 / 1 hour, 48 min
Cast Overview: Naomi Watts, Sean Penn, Liraz Charhi, Anand Tiwari, Khaled Nabawy, Ty Burrell, David Andrews, Jessica Hecht, Norbert Leo Butz, Bruce McGill, Rebecca Rigg
Director: Doug Liman
Genres: Action, Biography, Drama, Thriller
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