Naomi Watts "extraordinary" in 'Fair Game'

Naomi Watts "extraordinary" in 'Fair Game'

Wednesday, April 28 2010
By Simon Reynolds, DigitalSpy




Fair Game director Doug Liman has described Naomi Watts's performance in his political drama as "extraordinary".

Speaking to Movieline, Liman enthused about the Australian actress's turn as Valerie Plame, a covert CIA spy who was dismissed from the agency after writing a scathing article about the Bush administration.

"It's the best she's ever been. She is just extraordinary in the film. I don't think there's anybody - I don't care how hardcore Republican they might be - who's not going to look at the film and say, 'That was an extraordinary performance. That was a once-in-a-lifetime performance,'" Liman said.

The director added that he is confident Fair Game can succeed where other politically-charged Iraq war films have failed.

"I think [Fair Game[/em]] is in the spectrum of 'It's a really great movie," he said. "And a lot of other movies that have been about the war or dealt with the war have not been great movies.

"In fact, they've been motivated more by politics than by story, and that's been a turn-off to audiences. This is sort of the first political movie that's been made where I feel like the commitment was there from the first moment to story and character, and not to politics."

Fair Game, starring Watts, Sean Penn and Ty Burrell, will premiere in competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival.