Review of Fair Game (2010) by Wesley L — 03 May 2011

At the center of Fair Game is a subtle and amazing performance by Naomi Watts. Her talent exonerates a film that sloppily combines emotional honesty with virulent political supposition, representing it all as Absolute Truth.Watts portrays real-life Valerie Plame, a CIA operative whose cover was blown by the Bush administration. After her diplomat husband, Joe Wilson (Penn), filed a report that argued that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs, someone in the Cheney office told the Chicago Times of Plame and her international work. As many as 70 of her co-operatives were killed. Scooter Libby took the blame, and Bush immediately commuted Libby's sentence.Those infuriating facts are enough to carry any movie. In fact, it would have been a more fascinating story if some political vagueness had been allowed. However, this flick based on books by Plame and Wilson has no interest in being fair. Bush is a doofus, Cheney is a villain, and the Republican Party is the new Axis of Evil. This approach (especially Pennâ(TM)s vitriol) means that the people who should see the movie will avoid it like a Keith Olbermann report.

Fair Game, though, shines in its quieter moments. Penn and his very public anger conflicts with Watts and her longing to be a great undercover CIA agent. Especially her silent, steely performanceâ¦her iron will to stick to her career's prime objective - presents complicated ideas that overcome the movie's indignant op-ed moments.