I get knocked down, but I get up again: Naomi Watts and Sean Penn fight the power in Fair Game
Fair Game--Leave it to Doug Liman, director of The Bourne Identity, to cinematically portray the intensity surrounding the real life story of CIA agent Valerie Plame and her ambassador/columnist husband, Joe Wilson. It could've turned out like Green Zone, the Matt Damon-starrer from March that had zero substance and merely focused on the gung-ho action associated with the WMD crisis. But Liman's smarter than that--he successfully mixes the political thriller genre with an exploration into a crumbling marriage without a hint of maudlin flavor. The result is an effective drama touching upon political questions and actually answering some with a coherent balances of audacity and restraint. In other words, this isn't an Oliver Stone film.
Naomi Watts and Sean Penn play the targeted wife and husband, respectfully, and they do a more than admirable job. Watts' performance is multi-layered and human, impressively displaying anxiety, heart-break, warmth, and determination that acquaints the audience to Valerie's mentality. Penn doesn't surprise, because he's equally intense--he turns Wilson into the physical embodiment of rage at one moment and a sympathetic and pressured husband at another. Both performances are surprising and full of range that is needed to express the reality of their predicament. The cinematography and editing are sharp, creating this atmosphere of urgency and frustration, while the dialogue leans away from most contrivances.
Completely enjoying Fair Game does, however, partly rely on the viewer. It depends on what his or her attitude is to the Plame scandal, for the film is based on both her and her husband's published accounts of what happened. The dramatization, while cinematically rendered to high impact, may rub some as 'too left' or narrativized subservient to certain liberal ideals. Perhaps Penn's presence exacerbates this notion, but 'Fair Game' is in no way propaganda--it tells its story with a purpose that's not overly biased or underwhelming. In other words, it mainly focuses on the injustices of the White House rather than leaning either way on the political spectrum, but strongly-opinionated spectators might still find cracks to fill with their external criticisms. If the audience chooses to accept the slightly fictionalized events (what goes on inside their home according to Plame and Wilson's works) surrounding the reported facts, they get the privilege of enjoying of the year's best dramatic thrillers. If not, it's their loss.
Grade: A
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