Naomi Watts wins in Fair Game

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Naomi Watts wins in Fair Game

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03 November,2010 01:07 pm

Fair Game takes place just a few years ago but it feels like a throwback to the political thrillers of the 1970s: globe-trotting and intelligent, serious and substantial, deliberately paced yet filled with mounting suspense. It also boasts excellent performances from Naomi Watts and Sean Penn (no surprise there) as exposed CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson all of which makes it so frustrating when Fair Game implodes at the end in a heap of righteous indignation. What happened to Plame and Wilson should make us angry and mistrustful. It should spur us into action, or at least inspire us to become more informed about what our political leaders are doing. But that much is evident from the first moments of director Doug Liman's film, based on a script by brothers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, which itself is based on Plame and Wilson's memoirs. The film makes its case clearly and efficiently: These people were betrayed by the very government they served. It doesn't need to repeat its points with heavy-handed preaching at the end. Still, until then, Fair Game moves well and keeps us riveted, even as it encompasses a great deal of complex material no surprise again, coming from the director of The Bourne Identity.