Jason KingFAIR GAME (8/10)
November 9th 2010 06:27
:
REVIEW BY DAVE
Category: Reviews
FAIR GAME (8/10)
BIG THANKS TO DAVE FOR STEPPING IN AND WATCHING THIS ONE FOR ME. I would like to suggest to distributors to organise together their screenings as so many of them are on the same night at the same time - what is a reviewer to do??
Dave has written a few things in the past and likes to analyse way more than I do - I love his style and he also now has his own website so be sure to check out www.damngoodcup.com
FAIR GAME is a very complex and winding film that follows the real life story of CIA agent Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) and her involvement in the Iraq war from the immediate aftermath of the september 11th 2001 attacks. The plot is difficult to distill down to a couple of paragraphs, but I'll try:
Valerie Plame is an officer in the counter-proliferation department of the CIA (they look for bombs and war threats). The U.S Government is desperate to find weapons so they can invade Iraq - Plame discovers, contrary to the need of the US Government, that Iraq has no active nuclear weapons program - this upsets quite a few people.
When we first meet Valerie in 2001 she is juggling two lives. On one hand she is the wife of the retired ambassador: Joe Wilson and the mother of their two children - On the other hand she works for the CIA, running covert missions as the leader of the Joint Task Force on Iraq.
Plame was critical in this time in history because in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks; the United States wanted a reason to invade Iraq, and those reasons were nuclear weapons - See, Valerie was tasked in finding those weapons, and when she didn't the Government just couldn't hack it...
Valerie's husband Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) is constantly left alone with the children while she globe-trots and it causes strain on their marriage. Wilson is a former Sate Department official and was the last American diplomat to meet with Saddam Hussein after the 1990 invasion of Iraq - he personally demanded the withdrawal of Iraqi forces... by facing down with Hussein; Wilson potentially rescued thousands of Americans before he was to leave the country himself.
Wilson is sent by Valerie to Africa to investigate the rumors of Uranium sales to Iraq; when he finds nothing and the US media reports otherwise; he writes a piece for The New York Times - and here is were sh*t hits the fan.
Soon, someone somewhere leaks Valerie's top-secret identity to the media. Presumably because she came close to proving that there were no weapons in Iraq - which would have stopped the Iraq invasion from happening.
With her cover blown, Plame and Wilson are pushed to breaking point - professionally and platonically. Their relationships crumble; they receive death threats etc. After 18 years serving the United States Government Valerie and Wilson now have a huge campaign against them on their hands - they have to struggle to maintain their reputation; their career and their marriage.
I loved FAIR GAME... I didn't know much about the movie before walking in. All I knew was that it was directed by the very hit and miss Doug Liman (GO, MR AND MRS SMITH and JUMPER) and that it starred Sean Penn and Naomi Watts - two actors I admire very much. With Liman, I love SWINGERS and GO but really disliked MR AND MRS SMITH and JUMPER. I actually thought it was going to be an action movie because of his recent pedigree - but I was pleasantly surprised to find it is his most mature and adult movie yet.
There are a couple of thrilling scenes involving bombs and crowded middle eastern streets, but its kept to a minimum. In terms of his direction I only have a few issues with the pacing of the first half hour -See Liman shot the movie himself- and there is a breakneck pace at the beginning which did not suit the movie - the camera zips and zooms all over the place, even when its just a simple two/three character discussions - it was exhausting.
luckily the pace settled and Liman stopped racing the camera around - It may not be a fault in the direction but in the editing; maybe quite a bit was removed from the first act for time - thus disrupting the balance...But look, it's not that much of a problem, even in the first act, because so much of the film works, but more on that in a bit...
The film attempts to split character study with political commentary - the first act focused almost entirely on the political commentary and exposition; it was difficult to focus on the issues at hand, because nothing was known about the characters. It was just Sean Penn and Naomi Watts blabbing on about stuff in a really fast paced fashion with extremely distracting camera movement. Then all of a sudden, about twenty minutes in; the film starts taking a different direction - plot developments occur, and from act two onwards it primarily becomes a story about the disintegration of a marriage; and the dissertation on the question of who has 'fair game' when it comes to information and other human beings takes a secondary position.
A brilliant parallel is made between the relationship of a wife and husband; to a country and another; to even a individual against his own government.
When these aspects start coming to fruition, the film becomes incredibly interesting. It becomes very emotional because the political elements are tied directly to the characters. Sean Penn and Naomi Watts are excellent, and when the film comes to the campaign against Wilson and Plame its just some of the best stuff this year.
Each character reacts differently to the campaign and it all ties into the parallel - Joe fires back against the allegation and takes on the government headfirst; whereas Valerie struggles with her true persona being out there in the open.
The most important element of a drama is conflict, without conflict you have nothing - when you have a female CIA agent outed to her whole family and friends during such a huge nationwide scandal - and then you add Joe Wilson to the cocktail and etc etc etc, you have some amazing conflict.
The film is written by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (Birthday Girl with Nicole Kidman) and it is a great screenplay - it has flaws for sure, but the attention to detail and the ebbs and flows of the story are very fine. The way they juggle so many sympathetic characters and different perspectives and never have it lose heart and soul and understandability is excellent.
They based their screenplay on the books written by the real life Plame and Wilson; THE POLITICS OF TRUTH by Joe Wilson; and FAIR GAME by Valerie Plame. Now of course Plame co-operated as a consultant to the film and to Watts- but there is still so much that she couldn't reveal, so the two writers had to do an immense amount of 'cloak and dagger' research - and this shows in the movie.
Even though the movie appears very cheap in certain areas, and the production values aren't as huge as they could be - The real life Plame assures us that everything is almost exactly how it looks behind closed doors: "Most of the time when I see a film about the CIA, I find what I'm watching has little to do with reality. In this film, everything is just as it is in real life, including what's appearing on computer screens and the maps hanging on the walls. Doug Liman and everyone around him were so concerned with making everything in the film as accurate as possible".
This film is very impressive for the lengths it has gone to - it will forever hold the record as the first ever American non-documentary feature film to shoot in Baghdad, and working under such volatile conditions really adds to the film.
This level of effort is shown in every aspect of the film. Doug Liman did the cinematography himself; the writers did immense amounts of research and the real life Plame and Wilson were there on set, making themselves constantly available to the cast and crew.
Sean Penn spent time with the real Wilson and seems to exist as that character on screen- Sean Penn has a habit of disappearing into character- I guess thats what makes him one of the best actors/film-makers today.
The same deal goes for Watts (even though she didn't meet Plame until shooting began) she seems to become Valerie Plame, and the way she emotes those internal paranoias and confusions is astonishing. It is her best performance since 21 GRAMS.
Suffice to say the acting is excellent and really helps ground the script and bring out the characters and the emotion of it all.
Everybody involved in this movie is in it for the passion. It never glorifies anything and It is all about the truth. It never attempts to prioritize the political aspects and it never actually picks a political agenda (although I think it heavily leans left - but this is debatable).
It just focuses on two people who are caught up in history, and how these events affects their marriage and family.
The producer of the movie Bill Pohlad describes the movie as: "A story about people who were unafraid to speak up in the face of the abuse of power and became involved in the way our country works, versus stepping back and letting it just happen to them" ...and I guess he is right...Sean Penn has a few scenes where he exclaims (paraphrased
"Who has the right? Even one person can stand up and make a difference".
I guess this is the mentality of: 'Anyone can change the world if they fight hard enough' that resides at the heart of this movie. I guess that's the meaning of the title FAIR GAME.
Worth a nice 8 out of 10.
BIG THANKS TO DAVE FOR STEPPING IN AND WATCHING THIS ONE FOR ME. I would like to suggest to distributors to organise together their screenings as so many of them are on the same night at the same time - what is a reviewer to do??
Dave has written a few things in the past and likes to analyse way more than I do - I love his style and he also now has his own website so be sure to check out www.damngoodcup.com
FAIR GAME is a very complex and winding film that follows the real life story of CIA agent Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) and her involvement in the Iraq war from the immediate aftermath of the september 11th 2001 attacks. The plot is difficult to distill down to a couple of paragraphs, but I'll try:
Valerie Plame is an officer in the counter-proliferation department of the CIA (they look for bombs and war threats). The U.S Government is desperate to find weapons so they can invade Iraq - Plame discovers, contrary to the need of the US Government, that Iraq has no active nuclear weapons program - this upsets quite a few people.
When we first meet Valerie in 2001 she is juggling two lives. On one hand she is the wife of the retired ambassador: Joe Wilson and the mother of their two children - On the other hand she works for the CIA, running covert missions as the leader of the Joint Task Force on Iraq.
Plame was critical in this time in history because in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks; the United States wanted a reason to invade Iraq, and those reasons were nuclear weapons - See, Valerie was tasked in finding those weapons, and when she didn't the Government just couldn't hack it...
Valerie's husband Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) is constantly left alone with the children while she globe-trots and it causes strain on their marriage. Wilson is a former Sate Department official and was the last American diplomat to meet with Saddam Hussein after the 1990 invasion of Iraq - he personally demanded the withdrawal of Iraqi forces... by facing down with Hussein; Wilson potentially rescued thousands of Americans before he was to leave the country himself.
Wilson is sent by Valerie to Africa to investigate the rumors of Uranium sales to Iraq; when he finds nothing and the US media reports otherwise; he writes a piece for The New York Times - and here is were sh*t hits the fan.
Soon, someone somewhere leaks Valerie's top-secret identity to the media. Presumably because she came close to proving that there were no weapons in Iraq - which would have stopped the Iraq invasion from happening.
With her cover blown, Plame and Wilson are pushed to breaking point - professionally and platonically. Their relationships crumble; they receive death threats etc. After 18 years serving the United States Government Valerie and Wilson now have a huge campaign against them on their hands - they have to struggle to maintain their reputation; their career and their marriage.
I loved FAIR GAME... I didn't know much about the movie before walking in. All I knew was that it was directed by the very hit and miss Doug Liman (GO, MR AND MRS SMITH and JUMPER) and that it starred Sean Penn and Naomi Watts - two actors I admire very much. With Liman, I love SWINGERS and GO but really disliked MR AND MRS SMITH and JUMPER. I actually thought it was going to be an action movie because of his recent pedigree - but I was pleasantly surprised to find it is his most mature and adult movie yet.
There are a couple of thrilling scenes involving bombs and crowded middle eastern streets, but its kept to a minimum. In terms of his direction I only have a few issues with the pacing of the first half hour -See Liman shot the movie himself- and there is a breakneck pace at the beginning which did not suit the movie - the camera zips and zooms all over the place, even when its just a simple two/three character discussions - it was exhausting.
luckily the pace settled and Liman stopped racing the camera around - It may not be a fault in the direction but in the editing; maybe quite a bit was removed from the first act for time - thus disrupting the balance...But look, it's not that much of a problem, even in the first act, because so much of the film works, but more on that in a bit...
The film attempts to split character study with political commentary - the first act focused almost entirely on the political commentary and exposition; it was difficult to focus on the issues at hand, because nothing was known about the characters. It was just Sean Penn and Naomi Watts blabbing on about stuff in a really fast paced fashion with extremely distracting camera movement. Then all of a sudden, about twenty minutes in; the film starts taking a different direction - plot developments occur, and from act two onwards it primarily becomes a story about the disintegration of a marriage; and the dissertation on the question of who has 'fair game' when it comes to information and other human beings takes a secondary position.
A brilliant parallel is made between the relationship of a wife and husband; to a country and another; to even a individual against his own government.
When these aspects start coming to fruition, the film becomes incredibly interesting. It becomes very emotional because the political elements are tied directly to the characters. Sean Penn and Naomi Watts are excellent, and when the film comes to the campaign against Wilson and Plame its just some of the best stuff this year.
Each character reacts differently to the campaign and it all ties into the parallel - Joe fires back against the allegation and takes on the government headfirst; whereas Valerie struggles with her true persona being out there in the open.
The most important element of a drama is conflict, without conflict you have nothing - when you have a female CIA agent outed to her whole family and friends during such a huge nationwide scandal - and then you add Joe Wilson to the cocktail and etc etc etc, you have some amazing conflict.
The film is written by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (Birthday Girl with Nicole Kidman) and it is a great screenplay - it has flaws for sure, but the attention to detail and the ebbs and flows of the story are very fine. The way they juggle so many sympathetic characters and different perspectives and never have it lose heart and soul and understandability is excellent.
They based their screenplay on the books written by the real life Plame and Wilson; THE POLITICS OF TRUTH by Joe Wilson; and FAIR GAME by Valerie Plame. Now of course Plame co-operated as a consultant to the film and to Watts- but there is still so much that she couldn't reveal, so the two writers had to do an immense amount of 'cloak and dagger' research - and this shows in the movie.
Even though the movie appears very cheap in certain areas, and the production values aren't as huge as they could be - The real life Plame assures us that everything is almost exactly how it looks behind closed doors: "Most of the time when I see a film about the CIA, I find what I'm watching has little to do with reality. In this film, everything is just as it is in real life, including what's appearing on computer screens and the maps hanging on the walls. Doug Liman and everyone around him were so concerned with making everything in the film as accurate as possible".
This film is very impressive for the lengths it has gone to - it will forever hold the record as the first ever American non-documentary feature film to shoot in Baghdad, and working under such volatile conditions really adds to the film.
This level of effort is shown in every aspect of the film. Doug Liman did the cinematography himself; the writers did immense amounts of research and the real life Plame and Wilson were there on set, making themselves constantly available to the cast and crew.
Sean Penn spent time with the real Wilson and seems to exist as that character on screen- Sean Penn has a habit of disappearing into character- I guess thats what makes him one of the best actors/film-makers today.
The same deal goes for Watts (even though she didn't meet Plame until shooting began) she seems to become Valerie Plame, and the way she emotes those internal paranoias and confusions is astonishing. It is her best performance since 21 GRAMS.
Suffice to say the acting is excellent and really helps ground the script and bring out the characters and the emotion of it all.
Everybody involved in this movie is in it for the passion. It never glorifies anything and It is all about the truth. It never attempts to prioritize the political aspects and it never actually picks a political agenda (although I think it heavily leans left - but this is debatable).
It just focuses on two people who are caught up in history, and how these events affects their marriage and family.
The producer of the movie Bill Pohlad describes the movie as: "A story about people who were unafraid to speak up in the face of the abuse of power and became involved in the way our country works, versus stepping back and letting it just happen to them" ...and I guess he is right...Sean Penn has a few scenes where he exclaims (paraphrased
"Who has the right? Even one person can stand up and make a difference".I guess this is the mentality of: 'Anyone can change the world if they fight hard enough' that resides at the heart of this movie. I guess that's the meaning of the title FAIR GAME.
Worth a nice 8 out of 10.
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