Fair Game review

You know I had almost written off director Doug Liman a while ago. After the lackluster "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and the God awful "Jumper" I had pretty much figured that he'd peaked and now enjoyed simply getting nice pay checks for crap work. I was a bit surprised given his prior works "Swingers", "Go" and of course "The Bourne Identity", but between those films and some poorly produced tv shows that was my thoughts on him. Happily I was wrong and Liman has returned with not just a good film, but his best film and one of the most intelligent and entertaining CIA dramas in years.

"Fair Game" is about Valerie Plame, who in the early 2000's following the invasion of Iraq had her named leaked in the newspaper as an active CIA field agent. As you can imagine this isn't something light. Only her husband Joe Wilson (played by Sean Penn) and her parents knew about her CIA life which would then make normal life a lot less normal. Add to that her name and her husband's name being dragged through the mud on every news show around just so that Washington and the White House could destroy their public creditability. But the question is why. Why was her name dropped and why did they want so badly to make sure we the people wouldn't listen or wouldn't care about her story? The answer is... complex, but not hard to follow.

Simply put it boils down to the news that people want to hear. Behind the scenes motives and theories are never delved into much, but you can tell that it's a lingering thought within the screenplay. Adapted from two books written by Plame and Wilson, "Fair Game" and its impressive screenplay by the Butterworth brothers plays up the best parts of CIA stories, political films and just flat out good drama. Doug Liman seems to be playing with a style vastly different from his latter work and a bit more in tune with "Swingers", but stronger. His independent edge is evident however he has a fairly nice budget here so he can get great wide shots showing bits of destruction during the bombing raids and also shoot the film globally. However 98% of the film is very much focused on Valerie and Joe. As a couple and a working family they have to suffer through something extremely difficult in which they have conflicting opinions on. Joe wants to fight Washington while Valerie is simply worried about their future, the state of a few active operations she had going and just dealing with the overbearing negative press directed at her.

Watts and Penn simply go great together. They both pull off the sort of performances I love to see in which the actors effortlessly kill in dramatic moments while making us like and believe them in more somber settings. Hell there are times in "Fair Game" where it feels like the rage filled work of early Oliver Stone. Something that doesn't want you to simply be content with what the suits in Washington tell you is right, but wants you to ask questions. In many ways this is one of the more patriotic movies I've watched in a long time and equally brings pride and disgust. Many people have different opinions on why we went to war. At this point I'm not totally sure the answer matters as much as it did in 04', 05' or 06', but the amount of uncertainty should raise some red flags to Americans that maybe the simple 'we want to liberate Iraq' answer isn't totally correct. I actually remember her story quite well from the Vanity Fair article after she finally broke her silence. For me hearing her story should have been a big eye opener for those who believe the system is safe and right and truthful. But of course that wasn't what happened.

"Fair Game" doesn't take political sides for the most part, but it doesn't play it safe either. You see a lot of the rage and spit fire from Joe Wilson as he goes on television to defend his wife's name and her work. Wisely Liman uses the actually new footage about the story when say Watts or Penn is watching the tv. That way we can see that the things said about them weren't movie fabrication or exaggeration, but truly mean spirited cheap shots from the talking heads of the media. But the underlined point of it all is to never stop fighting... and they certainly didn't.

Overall this was a well crafted, fantastically acted and real spy drama that totally works. I'm highly impressed with Doug Liman's directing and willingness to not play to just one side. "Fair Game" is one of the very best films I've seen this year and well worth seeking out.