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Sunday, November 7, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
Fair Game
The Politics Of Propaganda, Via Valerie & Joe Wilson
Naomi
Watts as Valerie Plame Wilson and Sean Penn as Joe Wilson in Doug Liman's "Fair
Game".
Summit
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Sunday,
November 7, 2010
Naomi Watts and Sean Penn worked together in "21 Grams", and in "Fair Game" they
electrify the big screen for director Doug Liman ("The Bourne Identity"), in the
true story of the consternation the illegal disclosure of undercover CIA
counter-weapons proliferation operative Valerie Plame Wilson caused, courtesy of vice president Dick Cheney's
office in 2003.
The memorable op-ed piece by Ms. Plame's spouse Joe Wilson that appeared in the
New York Times in July 2003,
"What I Didn't
Find In Africa", about the absence of W.M.D., sparked retribution by Mr.
Cheney and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, endangering Ms. Plame Wilson's safety.
The film's title refers to what Republican political operative and former Bush
White House advisor Karl Rove once characterized Ms. Plame Wilson as during a
conversation he reportedly had with a prominent American cable news pundit.
As political drama "Fair Game" plays like an adrenalized documentary of the
events of 2003 before, during and after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. We are
swiftly taken to locations around the globe. Information and facts are
efficiently communicated not only in ways those unfamiliar with the events can
comprehend, but in an entertaining way, making Mr. Liman's film accessible and
digestible. An intense and pulsating film, we feel the claustrophobia of
the world closing in on the Wilsons. "Fair Game" is based on the books
Fair Game (by Ms. Plame Wilson) and The Politics Of Truth (Mr.
Wilson). The screenplay was written by the Butterworth brothers Jez and
John-Henry.
Ms. Watts looks the spitting image of Ms. Plame Wilson, exuding fire in the
belly as a resolute, brave warrior and patriot. She inhabits her role
immaculately as the embattled covert spy. The film itself doesn't need to
sound the bugle of moral rectitude; its performers effortlessly display the
grit, wit, vulnerability and intensity that the real-life participants surely
possessed. The film's tense emotional pitch rarely wavers, although the
film's final scene, though reality-based, may be the only bit of trumpeting
"Fair Game" affords itself.
"Fair Game" is far less caricatured a film than say, Oliver Stone's satire
"W."; it's a straight ahead, no-nonsense movie about
adults making life-changing decisions amidst a vicious climate in which privacy
is compromised by propaganda and political hardball. Underneath it is a
perhaps unintended love story of a marital and family unit under fire looking to
clear its name. For all its energy, neither the love story nor the
political saga "Fair Game" chronicles is theatrical. The film itself isn't
necessarily a political advocacy movie, either, at least in the way for example,
that "Green Zone" was.
Mr. Penn is especially good as the gregarious and determined Mr. Wilson, firing
away as much with voluble disposition as charisma as the principled diplomat.
The performance is an impressive combination of cerebral and physical. Mr.
Penn has played characters embroiled in political hot water before, whether in
"All The King's Men", "The Interpreter" or "Milk", and
here he resonates. Both Ms. Watts and Mr. Penn deserve a measure of
consideration for awards season.
Back in 2005 Mr. Liman directed "Mr. & Mrs. Smith", a fictional drama about a
husband and wife CIA team, but "Fair Game" is a better, more solid, though less
sexy real-life thriller.
With: Noah Emmerich, David Andrews, Bruce McGill, Khaled Nabawy, Adam LeFevre,
Ty Burrell, Jessica Hecht, Michael Kelly, Rebecca Rigg, Brooke Smith, Tricia
Munford, James Rutledge, Brian McCormack, Michael Goodwin, Geoffrey Cantor.
"Fair Game" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for
language. The film's
running time is one hour and 48 minutes. The film contains occasional
English subtitles and dialogue in the Arabic language and dialects.
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