Film Review #8: Fair Game

     What a crazy weekend we've put together for you here on The Melancholy Club, I hope you haven't fallen too far behind with the film reviews, so for those of you who haven't let's keep the train rolling with my review of Fair Game...

     Fair Game is a biographical film based on the true story of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson as outlined in the latter's book "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House"

     Valerie Plame (played by Naomi Watts) is an undercover operative for the Central Intelligence Agency married to a former US diplomat, who most recently served as an ambassador to African nation Gabon. He also has ties to the nation of Niger, and this is where the story really takes flight.

     Plame and her CIA cohorts, as it were, are investigating the alledged WMD (that's weapons of mass destruction for our friends that are globally unaware of everything) manufacturing that is believed to be happening by Iraq. The only problem is, the United States Government has absolutely no proof of this other than the fact that Iraq had purchased some aluminum tubes that could possibly be used for nuclear weapon fabrication, but most likely will be used for rocket powered artillary. But the american people are still feeling uneasy about the transaction so they opt (after some convincing to Plame) to hire her husband Joe Wilson (played by Sean Penn) to go to Niger and investigate a possible yellowcake uranium purchase by Iraq from Niger since Wilson has ties to the Niger government from his time there.

     After his investigation Wilson notes that there is no possible way that Niger can sell the amount of uranium required to Iraq without some sort of paper trail cropping up (They'd need 40% more uranium than Niger is used to mining.) To his surprise however, mear months after his journey to Niger the president brings up the very opposite at the State Of The Union adress, stating that Niger is selling large amounts of uranium to Iraq. After some digging and investigating by Wilson, he finds out that they have no new evidence of a uranium sale since his trip to Niger. So he takes matters into his own hands by writing an article in the New York Times stating the president is lying to everyone and there is no uranium. Now this doesn't sit well with the heads of state, so they begin to look for a way to discredit Wilson.

Now the tactic they use, isn't what we would call "legal" as the government writes an article of their own saying Wilson was never on a mission by the CIA, but rather a vacation paid for by the CIA thanks to his wife's work as a spy. Now this revelation doesn't sit well with Wilson and Plame, Wilson for being discredited as a liar and Plame because well her life as she knows it is over as she is under constant surveillance, she's removed from her position at the CIA, receives daily death threats and has a strain placed on her personal relationships (especially with her husband.)

     Now this movie is good, not amazing, not even super good, but it's worth a watch. There is just enough thrills to keep you entertained, while at the same time not being overly political to lose the audience that is less than savvy when it comes to politics. The acting is stellar, as the supporting cast is your usual white house cast of characters, and those who know me know that I hardly ever have a bad thing to say about Naomi Watts, even in her bad movies, she's the best of a bad situation and that makes her one of my favorite actress's. Sean Penn's character comes off as a whiny bitch most of the time, which is odd, it's not until near the end of the film that we see some diverse emotions coming from him. That's not to say that Penn's acting is bad, because Sean Penn is such a good character actor that I'm pretty sure he can pull almost anything off.

     The end result however, comes down to Doug Liman's directing. As far as I'm concerned he is one of the most underrated directors in the business as he continues to be able to direct all different types of films (The Bourne Identity, Swingers and Jumper) although he's very likely to never replicate the awesomeness that was Go. Overall you should watch this movie, it's old enough that you can likely find it on the cheap at your local video store, or you can download it or watch it online somewhere I'm sure (Legal warning: I do not condone movie piracy... So long as no one knows...)