Haven Orecchio
Journal Staff

Director Doug Liman’s Fair Game (2010, River Road Entertainment) is layered with drama, tension, and dishonest politics.

Based on the memoirs of Joseph Wilson entitled The Politics of Truth, Fair Game retells the story of Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts), a C.I.A. operations officer investigating weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in 2001.

In the run-up to the Iraq war, Plame sent her husband, ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson (Sean Penn), to Niger in suspicion that the country was producing yellow cake uranium. After his trip, he was convinced that the accusations were false, finding no evidence of uranium manufacturing. However, this report did not stop President Bush from claiming the existence of WMD in his State of Union Address.

When hot-headed Wilson decides to fight back against the deceitful government through an article in the New York Times, White House executive and clearly defined antagonist Scooter Libby (David Andrews) exposes Plame’s identity and ruins her chances of saving a family of scientists in Iraq, a mission she was passionate about.

Plame leads a double life. To her friends and family she is an average wife with a typical job. Only her parents and husband know that she is really a C.I.A. “crime fighter.”

Along with the political and professional drama that the couple endures throughout the movie, they also have a plethora of marital issues circling the mysteries of Plame’s life.

Her secretive job and unknown location during missions abroad puts stress on she and Wilson’s relationship. He is insecure that he can’t protect his wife in times of danger, and is always uneasy that she will not return to the family in one piece.

Contrary to Liman’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith, (2005, Regency) a light hearted action flick, Fair Game is a serious thriller based off of true events and a shocking headline.

The movie has all the right ingredients to be an exciting and timely political thriller, but with so much going on, it became a messy jumble with an extremely disappointing ending.

Although the movie did a good job at making Plame’s story known, the event was already well publicized and it was hard to build any real suspense.

The entire story was told from Wilson’s point of view as he and his wife were filmed in almost every scene. Although it is suggested that Libby was responsible for the leak, director Liman left it questionable as to who else was involved in an attempt to be cryptic.

The film’s only real hope for success is how it keys in on the emotion of the post-9/11 generation. The film almost does a better job at portraying the drama of a rocky marriage than it does in the ways of a political thriller.