[Review] Focus on the Watts

Watts wins in 'Fair Game'
Nick Lang, the Depaulia
10/25/10

The leaden "Jumper" director Doug Liman ("Mr. and Mrs. Smith," "The Bourne Identity") returns to thriller form with "Fair Game," a nimble political drama about the 2003 outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. The second film in three years about the controversy (following "Nothing But the Truth"), this "Game" is often riveting, even if we already know the players and the outcome.

In particular, Liman can credit his A-List talent, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, for turning in some of the best work of their careers. For Penn, the role of opinionated, loud-mouthed ambassador Joe Wilson may not be a stretch at all, but no one plays political indignation in Hollywood better (it just won him an Oscar.)

But more importantly, Mr. Penn tends to bring out the best in co-star Watts ("Mulholland Dr." "King Kong"), who was Oscar-nominated for her work opposite Penn in the sublime "21 Grams." Watts' role is a meaty one; the script calls for her Valerie Plame to be credible as a long-suffering wife, a scorned CIA agent and a devoted mother. Tired tropes, to be sure, but Ms. Watts brings a fresh intelligence and unpretentious intensity to each.

But unfortunately, Jez and John-Henry Butterworth's script isn't always at the actors' level. What begins as "The Plame Identity" eventually devolves into "Revolutionary Road Goes to Washington." The Plames' moral indignation can be a little on the Michael Moore side of heavy-handed, and the second half of the film deals mostly in domestic melodramatics and intermittent soapboxing.

It also doesn't help that the Butterworths' Bush bashing feels rather passé, since Dubya is now out of office and has long been condemned by basically everyone. At this point, it's about as politically audacious as condemning apartheid. But my suggestion: forget the safe grandstanding. . To paraphrase a favorite Peter Travers sillygism: when a star burns this bright, you'll follow her anywhere. See that you do.