Fair Game (2010)
Nothing is more fatal to a thriller than familiarity. If a viewer can anticipate -- or better yet, knows -- exactly where your narrative is going, suspense and dread are more or less destroyed. So when Doug Liman, the director responsible for starting the whole Bourne franchise craze, decided to take on the story of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts), her angry ex-ambassador husband Joe Wilson (Sean Penn), and their battles with the former Bush Administration, he faced a serious challenge: how to make material raked through the 24-hour news cycle muck seem fresh and exciting? For a portion of Fair Game's running time, he manages such a feat. Once the plot path leads to a feisty former Vice President and an aide named Scooter Libby, however, all tension trickles away.
When we initially meet up with Plame, she is jetting around the globe, striking deals with various members of terrorist organizations for information and allegiances. She balances this cloak and dagger dynamic with a loving home life. Her husband helps out on occasion, stepping in with contacts of his own to clear up the foggy intelligence picture. When they determine that aluminum tubes supposedly used by Iraq in a nuclear weapons program are actually useless spare parts for something else, they let the powers that be know this. The President, instead, uses another interpretation to make his case against Saddam. Wilson, livid, writes a scathing denouncement of the decision to go to war. The next thing the couple knows, Plame's name is part of a Washington Post piece, her safety has been compromised, and her loyalty challenged.
Up until the moment the MSNBC/Fox News TV trial of the truth begins, Fair Game is gangbusters. Watts is excellent as an attractive woman using her perceived fetching female fish-out-of-water status to lure arrogant Middle Eastern marks to their confessional fate. She is very good at her job and, at least from the movie's point of view, was one of the key crafters of the "no WMD" conclusion regarding Iraq. Those scenes sparkle with intelligence and wit, the various members of the CIA think tank deconstructing the logic of others. Even when Libby (David Andrews) shows up with a mandate -- finding someone, ANYONE, who agrees that said tubes were purchased for the creation of nukes -- we bristle at the arrogance and flawed focus.
Then Plame is named and Fair Game fades. We recognize the sudden strain this places on her relationship with Wilson (Penn is given little to do except look indignant and complain) and also fear for her life. But Liman does little with this latter angle. We need to actually feel the threat, to see how those Plame put in jeopardy actually respond to her true identity. The closest we come to such a sequence is when an informant promised asylum is left behind during the US invasion. Instead of more arguments between our couple about purpose and pride, Fair Game could have used more international espionage. Anger over government dirty tricks is old hat. It's been a part of the national mindset since Woodward and Bernstein lifted the veil of sanctity off of DC.
Indeed, almost four decades ago, a film like All The President's Men worked because, even with a bestseller as a basis, the typical viewer wasn't wholly versed in every aspect of the Watergate case. After the breach, Plame and Wilson were media constants up and through the eventual public resolution. Knowing where things are going hurts the latter half of Fair Game. Before then, it's everything a smart, modern, edge-of-your-seat entertainment needs to be
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