Fair Game (2010)

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Fair Game, a film based on the true story of uncovered CIA spy Valerie Plame and starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, is the fact that it was entirely overlooked at the Oscars. This isn’t because the film is of outstanding quality, because it’s not; it’s the fact that it seems to have all the right ingredients for an Oscar bait film but the academy certainly got it right as Fair Game is nothing more than an entertaining thriller.

The story is based on real life CIA agent Valerie Plame who was involved in the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Plame’s status as a CIA agent was revealed to the world in an effort to discredit her husband who wrote an article in the New York Times suggesting that the Bush Administration had manipulated and ignored intelligence in order to invade Iraq. The film details just how her husband came to write the article and after effects of the uncovering of her as an agent.

The true story behind the uncovering of Valerie Plame is certainly an interesting one and brings to light just how far the Bush administration were willing to go in order to invade Iraq. There was the basis for a powerful political film to be made about her story but instead director Doug Liman of The Bourne Identity fame decided to make a cross between a political film and a thriller which somewhat lessens the impact of the story. There is no doubting that Fair Game is an entertaining film but I can’t help but feel that I would have been better off as more of a drama that delved deep into the information behind the story. As it stands though, it still gives enough background into the whole affair for it to be a shocking indictment into the corruption and ineptitude of the Bush administration while still being an entertaining thriller. Both Naomi Watts and Sean Penn are very good in their roles and it’s a well filmed and produced film but a little less Hollywood and a little more in depth writing was needed to make Fair Game stand out from the myriad of other films of its ilk. 

Fair Game is a solid thriller based on the true story of Valerie Plame that is entertaining throughout but perhaps if it was little more informative and drama based than the academy would have paid more of an interest.

7/10