Review of Fair Game (2010) by Mike S — 06 Apr 2011

There's a lot of idiocy in the world. I don't wanna say anything bad about the right wing and the conservatives. It's the same thing I say with Michael Moore. The conservatives claim that Michael Moore hates America and I think that's just utter bullshit. He may be a little over-the-top with his methods. But do I actually believe he hates America? No...absolutely not. Because in his last movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, he's looking at the unfairness of the government. He's trying to get his country to IMPROVE. If that's hating America, then I'm not sure what loving it is. I just want somebody to explain to me how questioning your government is un-american. If you wanna pretend that your country is perfect and you wanna look the other way and pretend nothing's wrong and pretend that the government is telling you the truth about everything, well then that's just completely ignorant. The only thing that separates us from communism is that we can question our government and not be called a traitor and subsequently executed. If the conservatives want to pretend that the government is telling the truth about EVERYTHING, then fine...be a moron. But don't call someone who clearly loves his/her country a traitor, because said person questions the government's decisions and wants things to be right in the country. If that makes me a traitor, then so be it. People seem to forget that we're not supposed to be afraid of the government. Realistically, we outnumber them and THEY are the ones and we put them there, so who works for whom? Remember 3 little words in the constitution...We, the people.

Damn that was a good rant. Who knew I had such passion for the bullshit world of politics. Anyway, this movie is pretty fucking great. I remember saying in Nothing but the Truth (inspired by the events of this movie, the outing of a CIA agent, everything else is made up and has no basis on reality) that the problem I had with the movie is that it didn't feel as interesting as the real story probably would have. And that's where the movie failed, it just didn't manage to hold my interest for very long and it just seemed like they were stretching an episode of fucking Law and Order (or something like that) into a 2 hour movie and it just didn't work. That's why I really wanted to see the movie, because it's at least based on something real, something that I can look up and read what was changed and what was not. I could also find out more details about the real case. And you know what, unsurprisingly, this movie is completely and absolutely engrossing. It's just a very interesting story to watch unfold and how Valerie Plame Wilson's life and career was almost destroyed. In a sense her career WAS destroyed by some asshole with the name of Scooter Libby. Oh and George Bush commuted this guy's sentence because he felt it was too harsh. Another asshole. But yea the movie is totally interesting and a lot of that is drawn from the performances of Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, who were both fantastic in the movie. And the rest of the performances were believable. The movie has a bit of a 'fly on the wall' direction. I'm not exactly sure if it worked or not. Because it's not like the movie is unwatchable but sometimes I felt there was shaky camera work just for the sake of it. It's probably the only thing I had mixed feelings on because I really liked the movie. That's all I can say really. If you're stuck between watching this movie and Nothing but the Truth, I'd say you should watch both since Nothing...is also a good movie. But if you can pick only one then there's no real debate whatsoever, this should be the movie. And just overall it's a highly recommended movie.