Fair Game (2010)

3/4

Starring: Naomi Watts, Sean Penn, David Andrews, Michael Kelly, Noah Emmerich, Bruce McGill, Sam Shepard, Liraz Charhi

Rated PG-13 for Some Language

Not to be confused with the 1995 film starring William Baldwin and Cindy Crawford

At least in general terms, everyone knows the story of the Valerie Plame affair.  It goes like this: the Bush administration wanted a war with Iraq and tried to find evidence to justify it.  When they couldn't find any, they made it up and we went to war.  Ex-Ambassador Joe Wilson called them out on it, and to discredit him (and perhaps for revenge), Chief of Staff to then-VP Dick Cheney leaked the information that his wife Valerie Plame was an undercover spy.  That's when all hell broke loose.

Like many biopics of famous events or people, "Fair Game" seeks to tell the story behind the story.  In other words, fill us in on the juicy details that weren't available in the papers or from talk show pundits.  On that level, "Fair Game" is a success.  I admit that I wasn't exactly tuned in as the story unfolded (in my defense, I was still in high school, so most of my energy was focused on homework and getting into college).  But Doug Liman's film tells exactly what happened to Joe and Valerie Plame, what they knew, and what they did.

Valerie Plame (Watts) seems like a normal person.  She's a devoted wife and mother, a hard worker and socially vivacious.  For all anyone knows, she could be just another soccer mom down the street.  But what her friends at her dinner parties don't know is that she is a CIA spy, one who has operations going on all over the world.  Her boss (Emmerich) alerts her that Iraq is acquiring aluminum tubes to create centrifuges used to make nuclear weapons.  She's sent in to find out if that's true, and how close Saddam Hussein is to creating WMDs.  He also tells her that Iraq has bought 500 tons of yellowcake uranium, and asks her if she can get her husband Joe Wilson (Penn) to verify if the claims are true.  Both of them discover that the rumors are false, but to their horror, the Bush administration nevertheless claims that they are true.  When war breaks out, Joe writes his now-infamous column, and life changes radically for the both of them.  Valerie is disavowed by the CIA and hung out to dry, Joe loses clients, both of them are hounded by journalists and death threats, and both of them are humiliated constantly on the news.  Joe wants to fight back but Valerie just wants it to go away.  But how far can they go without losing everything?

This movie has the drive of newspaper drama like "Spotlight" and a spy thriller from John le Carre.  I mention le Carre for a reason.  His stories are densely plotted and filled with double-talk where the dialogue and motives of the characters are rarely what they seem.  "Fair Game" is like that; this is not a movie where you can turn off your brain.  It demands absolute concentration.  In fact, it's so compressed that a little more breathing room would have made the film longer.  I admit to getting confused a few times during this movie.

Is this movie political?  Certainly.  How could it not be?  It was based on the books by Plame and Wilson and paints the Bush administration as deceptive and vindictive warmongerers.  Used as a stand-in for the entire team is Scooter Libby, who is played by David Andrews with such oiliness that you want to smash his face in.  Preferably with a sledgehammer.  So yeah, devout Bush supporters (are there still such people?) probably won't like this movie.

But that's irrelevant.  The real question is how does "Fair Game" fare as a movie?  Quite well, in fact.  It's by no means perfect; all the double-talk and legalese can get confusing, although it's unlikely that those who are paying attention will get lost for more than a moment or two.  The first half of the film is both fascinating and disturbing.  It also moves at a quick enough pace that the suspense level remains high.  However, once Joe publishes the article and faces the music, the movie shifts gears and focuses on the domestic troubles between Joe and Valerie.  While realities of having a spy for a wife are intriguing and it's understandable that all the attention would put a strain on their marriage, the film lingers too much on this material.  Director Doug Liman's focus in the first half of the film was so hyperfocused on the plot that there was no room for character development.  As a result, this material gets old.  And just when it's resolved with a decent scene featuring an unbilled Sam Shepard as Valerie's father, it starts to build up to something really interesting.  Unfortunately, that's when Liman chooses to end the film, with just a few bits of text detailing the aftermath and showing footage of the real Valerie's testimony.  It feels like a rip-off.  There's also the subplot of a doctor (Charhi) who becomes a spy for Valerie that isn't resolved in a satisfactory way.

Is it worth seeing, nearly twenty years after these events took place?  I think so.  The story is fascinating, and it's well told by Doug Liman.  And one can always count on Naomi Watts and Sean Penn to turn in compelling performances.  Neither role is especially difficult or flashy, but they work hard to create a believable, if complicated, marriage between two intelligent people.  If nothing else, it highlights the importance of seeking the truth even when it hurts.  And it shows how two people with a lot of guts changed the world.