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Valerie Plame

November 4, 2010 by · Comments Off on Valerie Plame 

Valerie Plame, (CP) – Fair Game “takes place just a few years ago, but it feels like a return to political thrillers of the 1970s: globetrotter, intelligent, serious and substantial, deliberate pace still filled with suspense mounting.

It also features excellent performances from Naomi Watts and Sean Penn (no surprise) as discussed CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson – makes it so frustrating when “Fair Game” imploded at the end in a lot of indignation.

What happened to Plame and Wilson should make us angry and distrustful. This should spur us to action, or at least encourage us to learn more about what our political leaders do. But this is much more obvious from the first moments of director Doug Liman, based on a script by brothers Jez and John Henry Butterworth, which itself is based on Wilson and Plame memories. The film presents his arguments clearly and effectively: the very government they served betrayed them. He does not need to repeat his points to lead the heavy hand at the end.

Yet so far, “Fair Game” moves well and keeps us riveted, even if it includes a large number of complex documents – “. The Bourne Identity” no surprise again, from the Director

Watts is inflexible and cold as Plame, who has traveled the world, assumed different identities and cultures of dangerous sources as a secret agent in the service of the CIA against proliferation. When she was sent to Iraq in late 2001 to look for evidence of an active nuclear weapons program, she is not.

Around the same time, the State Department sends her husband to the West African nation of Niger, where he was once a U.S. ambassador, to determine whether a sale of enriched uranium to Iraq had occurred. He concludes that there is not much these – but that does not correspond with the game plan the Bush administration’s position in the war there. Intel is ignored Wilson – Bush actually said the exact opposite of Wilson’s findings in his State of the Union address – and as we all know too well now, we declare war on Iraq anyway.

Wilson, however, will not be silenced – by temperament, he is verbal Plame, passionate face – and wrote an editorial for The New York Times. Shortly afterwards, Plame coverage is leaked to the press and contacts are compromised. “Fair Game” reinforces the assertion that this is not a coincidence, and that the exposure of Plame coverage was an act of retaliation for the highest level at the White House. (Indeed, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, then chief Vice President Dick Cheney’s staff, was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the Plame investigation. President George W. Bush to commute Libby’s prison sentence of 30 months.)

You do not have to be well versed in where to find yourself sucked in “Fair Game” – though if you are, you’ll probably kick off the representation of Libby and Bush adviser Karl Rove. Noah Emmerich and Bruce McGill bring strength to there supporting roles as colleagues of Plame was who do not know how to deal with the leak, and with it.

Although it is convincing as a political thriller, “Fair Game” is in some respects more surprising is that the examination of a marriage under pressure, he did so of us could imagine. Watts and Penn know their beats, working face to face for the third time after “21 Grams” and “The Assassination of Richard Nixon” and they make us feel like we’re really looking at the intimate, often ill at comfortable exchange between a husband and wife, parents of twins struggling to maintain some semblance of normalcy in the most extraordinary circumstances.

They are so good together, they actually do you want to “Fair Game” had dug a little deeper into their relationship. That the film is not uncommon for some time.

“Fair Game,” a Summit Entertainment release, is rated PG-13 for language. Length: 106 minutes. Three out of four.

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