At this point, there’s no way to put a positive spin on the American invasion of Iraq. Even the spectre of Saddam Hussein’s atrocities can’t overcome the lies told to justify the war and the utter disaster it has become. Fair Game, in its dramatized fashion, tries to look at how the White House manipulated facts, flat-out lied, and then tried to punish those who disagreed.
The short version: When the Bush administration was looking for reasons to invade Iraq, the CIA sent former ambassador Joe Wilson to Niger to investigate the possibility Iraq buying uranium. He concluded there was no evidence of such a purchase, but the US invaded Iraq anyway. When Bush claimed to have evidence of the sale of uranium, Wilson wrote an article for the New York Times telling his side of the story. Soon after, a newspaper article was published that revealed Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative, effectively ending her career.
Fair Game never quite decides what sort of movie it wants to be. Is it about government corruption and the abuse of power? Is it about intelligence and the search for WMDs in Iraq? Or is it about a marriage under stress? It’s all of these things, generally quite well, but a two-hour movie simply doesn’t have the space to cover them all adequately. Valerie’s story is compelling, but a ruined career doesn’t seem as serious when juxtaposed with Iraqi scientists contemplating defection to the US. The first half of the movie is incredibly detail-heavy as we learn about uranium, aluminium tubing, and Iraqi weapons programs; that’s complicated by White House attempts to spin data and pressure the CIA into supporting their version of the facts. Then it’s all jettisoned once Valerie’s identity is revealed and she’s shut out of the CIA.
This sort of thing happens when adapting true stories: Real life doesn’t always support a two-hour dramatic structure. But then again, given how much of Plame’s career remains classified, I’m not sure how much of the story is real to begin with. Plame apparently never operated under an assumed name, but the opening of the film has her doing exactly that. Her plan to recruit Iraqi weapons scientists must be similarly embellished, if not outright fabricated. It’s important to show Valerie’s career before the White House torpedoed it, but along with Wilson’s investigation and the various CIA and White House manipulations, Fair Game ends up with too much plot and not enough character.
As Wilson, Penn never seems happier than when he’s on a soapbox. It’s used to good effect early in the movie, with an acquaintance making stupid remarks about Muslims on airplanes; a short cut later, and Wilson is apologizing to his wife on the way home for ruining a perfectly pleasant dinner conversation. But Penn spends much of the rest of the movie lecturing everyone about corrupt governments, truth, and honesty. It’s hard to disagree with most of his points, but after a while he becomes the film’s moral narrator: Lying about weapons of mass destruction was wrong. Outing a CIA agent was wrong. We can understand these things without Sean Penn being angry and shouty. Penn can be an exceptional actor, but sometimes he substitutes emotion and volume for nuance. The man who worries about his wife and meets with with foreign officials is a compelling character; the one who shows up to lecture university students and talk show hosts quickly becomes a bore.
In contrast, Naomi Watts’ performance is all about keeping her cards close to her chest. This is a woman who has spent most of her life trained in secrecy: Almost no one knows what she does for a living, and the few that do don’t know any details. Unlike her husband, she’s perfectly willing to smile and keep her mouth shut while others talk about things they don’t understand. All she really wants is to do her job, and that means staying out of the spotlight. She can’t understand what has happened to her: Her private career has been exposed to the world, but she can’t bring herself to fight back in public. Watts is superb as Plame gradually starts to crack under the pressure and chaos, as anger and outrage turn to fear and disillusionment. She doesn’t need any of Penn’s angry expository scenes to convey what she’s feeling. The film turns Plame into something of a passive martyr – she never does anything deserve her punishment, nor can she do much of anything to resist it. If there’s a flaw in her character, it’s that she seems to have no flaws at all.
Even if it’s unbalanced as a whole, Fair Game has many good parts; there are few points when you look at your watch and wonder when it’s going to end. Only when the credits roll – alongside footage of the actual Valerie Plame’s congressional testimony – do you realize the things that were missing, the details you wish the film had covered. It’s the sort of film that leaves you wanting more, but not in the good way. But the story itself is worth hearing, and Watts’ performance makes it all worthwhile. It is, at the very least, enough to get me interested in reading more about the whole sordid affair.