Title: Fair Game
Directed by: Doug Liman (Jumper, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The O.C.)
Starring: Naomi Watts (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Funny Games, The International), Sonya Davison and Sean Penn (All the King’s Men, Milk)
When scandals and corruption hit American politicans, the public feels it knows everything just by reading articles and watching news broadcasts. However, people often tend to forget there are numerous sides to every story, which is exactly the case with the new political drama ‘Fair Game,’ starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. The two portray real life couple Valerie Plame, a former CIA Operations Officer whose identity was publicly revealed, and her husband Joseph C. Wilson, who once worked as an American Ambassador.
English screenwriters Jez and John-Henry Butterworth combined details from Plame’s book Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House with Wilson’s memoir The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity. The movie follows several of the CIA operations Plame was involved in immediately after 9-11. It also chronicles her life leading up to the U.S.’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. As part of the CIA’s Counter-Proliferation Division, Plame was gathering evidence that Iraqi leaders were building weapons of mass destruction.
Wilson, meanwhile, tried to verify rumors that Iraq had purchased enriched uranium from Niger. After visiting the African country, he felt there wasn’t any evidence proving the claims, and wrote an editorial for The New York Times stating so. Wilson also said he believed President Bush was too hasty in calling for the war in Iraq. To get back at Wilson, Richard Armitage from the US State Department provided Washington Post writer Robert Novak with the information that Plame worked for the CIA.
After Novak revealed Plame’s identity in an articled printed on July 14, 2003, her career and family began to fall apart. While Wilson tried to fight the White House by making television appearances, Plame wanted to move on with her life quietly in private.
Director Doug Liman, who rose to fame in the mid-1990s with his hit ‘Swingers,’ made the right decision to focus on Plame and Wilson’s side of the story. Many Americans felt they knew all of the facts about the case, referred to in the media as “Plamegate,” just by watching the news programs about it. Liman expertly proved that many of these shows only wanted to belittle and judge Wilson for his lack of support for the Iraqi war.
The movie also showed that Wilson just wanted to accurately inform America what was going on overseas. Penn accurately portrayed Wilson as having no intention of harming his wife’s career or the American public. Audiences will most likely feel bad for Wilson and Plame, as many of the attacks they received from the press and their fellow Americans were unjust. ‘Fair Game’ also makes people realize that they shouldn’t be quick to judge others if they don’t have the entire side of the story.
‘Fair Game’ also stands out from other movies based on real-life stories as it not only focused on the events leading up the major conflict, but also showed its aftermath as well. Audiences were able to see that Plame and Wilson not only struggled to get new jobs after “Plamgate,” but also fought to keep their relationship alive.
Also shown in the movie, Plame and Wilson received unfair Justice when former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney Scooter Libbey’s 30-month jail sentence was commuted by President Bush. Considering he had a part in the revelation of Plame’s identity, Libbey deserved a far worse punishment of paying a fine, performing community service, having two years of supervised release and being disbarred from practicing in Washington, D.C. until at least 2012.
Liman also made the right decision in casting Watts and Penn in the lead roles. After appearing together in the Academy Award-nominated ’21 Grams’ and ‘The Assassination of Richard Nixon,’ the two veteran actors know how to complement each other on the screen. They have a good dynamic together, as they genuinely seem to care for each other. The two also seemed to care about keeping their family together, and the importance of doing what’s right, as they have children of their own in real life.
Overall, ‘Fair Game’ is an impressive thriller, and stands above other dramas based on real-life events. Not only will fans of Watt and Penn enjoy the movie, as they once again bring believability to their roles and have a good chemistry together, it will also appeal to those interested in crime and corruption. Many people will be surprised about the details they learn about “Plamegate” from the film, which was backed by both Plame and Wilson.
Written by: Karen Benardello
