Fair Game

This is an amazingly well put together movie. The screenplay is totally understandable. One of the best films about the process of going in to the Iraq War and the use of information at the time. I was superficially familiar with Plame's story but did not realize how vital her and her husband's work was in relation to the Iraq war. Naomi Watts does a very good job. She doesn't overact but you can see her vulnerability and passion. She blends into the role so well that unlike Nicole Kidman you don't think of a movie star acting but you focus on the story. Virginia Madsen looks more like Valerie Plame but unfortunately is now too old. Sean Penn is a bit too unattractive for the role but his acting ability makes up for it. The production is top notch with an authentic on location feel to it. Valerie Plame's story has to be told in this movie form so everyone can learn about what happened to her. It is a great story about the life of a CIA operative and it's toll on family life. It also is a great story about how the most patriotic acts can be so difficult to carry out in the face of unjust opposition. The movie really deserves some big award nominations.

source: Fair Game

Not without some stirring scenes, particularly near the end (when the story finally declares it's about a marriage more than anything else), FAIR GAME is overall pretty much of a loser. The filmmakers are unsure if they want to present an HBO-style docudrama or actually dramatize the life of two reactive protagonists, and the confusion mars the film. We never believe Penn and Watts are really parents to those puppet-ed twins in the story, and other props, like Watts' sagacious dad (a good Sam Shepherd) are wheeled out only at the end. Friends of the couple seem distant and again, used as conveniences. The final sequence illustrates what the story could have really been about: the threats to a marriage from outside forces, but then the focus all along would have had to have been on the marriage itself, more than the political machinations affecting it. This would have been a real challenge as a movie, but one worth undertaking. As it is, Fair Game loses its match.

Fair Game is supposedly the next up-and-coming JFK type of movie, where we get to take a hard look at controversy and conspiracy. As expected, the movie deals in some very complex jargon and can be difficult to follow. As we get further and further into the movie I began to accept the fact that I was not going to be entertained, and that I was going to learn something about how our government operates, which I did. This happened rather quickly, and I adjusted to the movie playing out more like a doucmentary with highly-skilled actors rather than something like Air Force One. The 2 main characters become exposed and branded as traitors by their own US Government and find out what it is like to be all by themselves in the fight against a large impersonal entity. White House officials discredit Joe Wilson's (Sean Penn's) account of the government falsifying information to justify invading Iraq. The abuse of power discovered by these characters is pretty incredible, when you have a government that will say practically anything to protect its public image. Lots of drama and fact-finding ensues, and the movie is both compelling and infuriating at the same time. The dialogue is mature and smart, and we draw close into the lives of the married couple, who like diamonds, seem to be able to strengthen their marriage through the trials of pressure. Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) and Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) are the married couple, Plame a CIA agent who's identity is exposed, and Wilson who wrote the controversial but truthful piece which lead to the government's destruction of their lives, or at least the attempt. The validity in Wilson's story is apparent by how much uproar and backlash is caused when the government goes public with their side of the story.

Okay, we know Penn's a good buddy of the Venez. dictator Hugo Chavez. Would we expect anything fair and balanced from this unAmerican? Of course not. And that's exactly what we get. A movie hell bent on attempting to prove Iraq didn't have WMD's. Of course! they had WMD's! They used the chemical ones on their own people, killing over 5,000 of em. Frankly, it wouldn't have mattered if they didn't have any with such a corrupt, evil, murdering dictator as they had in Hussein! If our guys would've only found a pack of firecrackers...they were justified in the unified invasion...agreed to by the Dem's AND Repubs as well as the international coalition! So please, let's quit, once and for all in blaming Bush and Cheney for something that was agreed to by our entire government, albeit a few and I mean few exceptions. And the only real thing we can blame on Cheney (excepting Hallieburton) is that he's a lousy shot!

The story would have been very exciting if it were promoted as a work of fiction--which it is. However, this is supposed to be historical, and therefore needs to be judged on that basis. And on that basis, it is a complete and total waste of time. This follows in the tradition of movies like JFK, which can be entertaining as long as you consider them pure works of fiction, but have little basis in reality. Unfortunately, most people who see this movie will trust that it is mostly factual, rather than almost completely fictional, and end up being worse off and less-informed than before they sat down to watch it. The editors of the Washington Post, hardly a right-wing neocon publication, absolutely eviscerated this film for its bogus inventions of political fantasy that it tries to pass off as factual. Therefore, I think it was a complete waste of my time to watch it, and would be a waste for anyone else. Either you are already subscribing to the alternate reality promoted in the movie, in which case you don't really need to see it, you don't really know about the facts, in which case you are going to pick up a false story, or you know what really happened, and you are going to sit there wondering what planet the people who made this film were living on. It is really that bad. If you've got a political axe to grind, I recommend getting a bumper sticker, don't waste your time with this ridiculous movie.

Excellent acting by Sean Penn, as Ambassador Joe Wilson, and Naomi Watts, as Valerie Plame, the CIA agent who ran secret operations in the Middle East to locate Weapons of Mass Destruction. Directed by Doug Limon of the Bourne trilogy, this film is a spy thriller which is based on the unprecedented case of Ms. Plame whose identity was revealed to the world by the White House. When her identity was disclosed in right wing news columns, a dozen clandestine operations were jeopardized, and a number of assets, including Iraqi weapons scientists, were killed. This story is unique, because no White House in the history of the United States has divulged the identity of our spies for any purpose. The villain at the center of the scandal is Karl Rove, who Joe Wilson wanted "frogged marched down Pennsylvania Avenue," for committing treason and putting our field agents and their assets in jeopardy. The score of this film is excellent and should garner an Oscar nomination. The acting may also be at the winner's circle, and the picture itself will probably nominated as one of 2010's best. If the story were not true, it would probably sound too far-fetched. Criminal conduct by White House officials is not unprecedented. Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the Clinton impeachment are some recent examples of high drama in the Oval Office. Fair Game is unique in that the crimes against the nation were an exercise of pure power against the truth - to cover the trail of lies which led the United States into a long expensive war for reasons which were never disclosed publicly. The State of the Union address which took the nation to war was a lie. The burden of the American and Iraqi dead rest upon these lies. The United States and Iraq are bleeding our young and our treasuries nearly ten years after the lies got us there. The movie is a great story, well-told, and, hopefully, a civics lesson for those who are capable of learning from the past

An outrageous act that the perpetrators managed to get away with it, in fact this particular perpetrators got away with more than anyone in recent history. Scooter Libby, guilty as hell himself became the protective shield of the Vice President. We all know that, so how is it possible that nothing has been done about it? Joe Wilson and Valerie Plane are the attractive protagonists of this thriller that looks and feels like a work of fiction. They are played by the wonderful Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, although the hand held camera and the digital thing worked against them, She looks as if suffering from some kind of skin ailment. David Andrews is great as Scooter Libby. Horrid. The director, however, should have been the Costa Gavras of "Z" or "State Of Siege" Fair Game doesn't go deep enough. If you don't know about it, you'll be very confused and won't be as outraged as one should be. I followed the outraged as it played on the Cable News networks, in the papers and on line, that's why I wanted more from the film but I'm glad it was made and I hope it tickles the curiosity of the naturally indifferent to awaken a truly patriotic sense of disgust.

War. Media. Spin. Economics. We must be reminded that the media is a scathing dog, a venomous snarler that can be fighting for you or against you. The witnesses to this battle of info-rage get brainwashed, we get brainwashed, and become the court of public opinion. While the movie does not address the reasons the war was started, it brilliantly displays how official bullshit can be thrown over us like a comforting shroud, and that shroud can stimulate our anger as well as justify our anger. Brilliantly performed by Sean Penn and the beautiful Naomi Watts. I am humbled by their talent and dedication. I am humored by the desperate IMDb rants of those whom still think the war was a 'good' thing - I say to you ranters, wake up for your own good :) Governments lie, don't forget it.

"Fair Game" is a film directed by Doug Liman ("The Bourne Identity," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith") based on the memoir "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House" by Valerie Plame. Sean Penn is back after taking a two-year acting break since his second Best Acting Oscar for "Milk" in 2008. He plays the character of Politician Joe Wilson alongside Naomi Watts' portrayal of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Together these two tell the true story behind the weapons of mass destruction scare in 2002 and 2003 in Iraq that ultimately lead the United States to war. Valerie Plame is in the middle of the investigation of WMDs in Iraq. In order to learn more about the possible WMDs the government has Valerie's husband Joe travel as an ambassador to Niger in order to get information about the sale of uranium from Niger to Iraq. Joe learns that there is not going to be a sale but the government twists the story. After viewing the State of the Union Address Joe Wilson decides to write an article in the New York Times stating the truth behind what he found in Niger challenging the White House directly. In response, the government declassifies Valerie's status as a CIA agent making her "Fair Game" and putting her directly in the public eye in order to bring shame to her husband and her family. This sparks a fire within Joe to fight the White House, but also begins to tear him and his wife apart. "Fair Game" allows Naomi Watts and Sean Penn to let loose and take over the screen with their acting talents. Watts doe a very good job with her role portrayal of hard shelled Valerie Plame. She is able to create the stubborn exterior of Plame while showing her emotional side deep within. Congratulations is in order for her being able to stand out while on screen with Hollywood superstar and Academy favorite Sean Penn. All of the talk about the film has been directed towards Watts as Oscar season approaches, but it would be no surprise if Penn receives an Oscar birth as well. He is phenomenal in the film creating a very unique character breaking through the clichés that could have been. Both of these actors are able to give the film heart and show the strength that the couple had in order to fight the corrupt government sector leading to the fall of Scooter Libby. The film is slow to start as the back story is built however, while the characters of Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson are developed completely all of the other characters seem to be left behind. They come off as just walking through the motions making it very hard to connect and differentiate between them. This can be attributed to one of two things. Either the acting is less than adequate, or there are so many characters that Watts interacts with at the CIA it are hard to put a name with any of the faces. "Fair Game" is a political thriller that needed to be made. However, it is your job as the audience to reach out and see it because of its limited film release. Go see it now in order to learn about the story and note that a Best Picture Oscar nomination may be waiting for this dark horse of this year's award season.