Cast: Naomi Watts, Sean Penn
Director: Doug Liman
Producer: Jez Butterworth
Like No One Killed Jessica, Fair Game is also based on a true story of power, corruption and lives destroyed.
Sean Penn plays Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who is asked to investigate reports that Iraq is buying Uranium from Niger. When the Bush administration goes to war claiming that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, citing the uranium buy as evidence, Wilson writes a scathing op-ed in the New York Times stating the opposite. That in fact he didn’t find anything to substantiate the report. The retribution is swift and brutal.
Wilson’s wife Valerie Palme, played here by Naomi Watts, a covert CIA officer is outed by members of the administration. Her name is leaked to the press. She loses her job, many of her operatives in the field are killed and their marriage almost ends.
Fair Game is difficult and dry but also moving and deeply frightening. Director Doug Liman, who earlier made The Bourne Identity, retells the story as a portrait of a fraying marriage. Joe and Valerie are a seemingly normal couple, coping with their respective careers, children, financial pressures.
Joe is more aggressive and showy while Valerie is more sober and disciplined. Joe’s inability to stay quiet pits the family against the White House, and as Valerie’s boss puts it, the most powerful men in the world.
Fair Game isn’t light entertainment. But if you’re in the mood for more serious fare, do catch it. Naomi Watts’ piercing performance stayed with me for hours after.
