Fair Game

From Doug Liman the director of the Bourne Identity comes the completely opposite and incredibly boring Fair Game. Starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn the film is the real life story of Valerie Plame, the CIA agent exposed to the national media as a covert operative and international spy during the Bush administrations attack of Iraq. The white house used her bad publicity to help hide the fact that they were invading Iraq for reasons completely unrelated to the weapons of mass destruction which they claim to be after form the beginning.

Aside from the craptacular cinematography right from the start of the film it does get off to a great start. We’re introduced to Valerie the CIA operative and suburban wife and average neighbour, all while establishing the CIA’s investigation into Iraq’s ability to produce nuclear weapons. The first half of the film is entertaining, engaging and all around great.  

The plot takes the obvious twist at about the half way point when Valerie is exposed to the media as a member of the CIA, thanks to her obnoxious husband and his mission to get his two cents heard. Her friends and family are reluctant to except the news as is the general public, brushing it off as she must have only been a secretary if anything for the agency.

The real problem with Fair Game is it runs out of things to do after about the halfway point of the film, and it almost seems as though Liman didn’t bother to show up on set for half the production either. As much as this movie bored me half to death as I’m sure it’ll do to you as well, at the very least I’m sure Watts will be nominated for an Oscar; regardless of the fact she played the same cardboard character she does in everything, there’s also a possibility Penn might even be nominated as well even though this was far from his best performance on film.

I don’t recommend this film to anyone, not even as something to catch on cable. Chances are you already know the story, or at least the interesting aspects to it if you were watching the news at all around the time the US invaded Iraq.

I’m giving Fair Game an overall 5/10.