Fair Game

Theatrical Release Date: 2010 11 05 (USA - Limited) / 2010 11 12 (USA - Expanding)

UPC: 025192096990

Studio: Summit

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:[Profanity]

Summary: The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman teams with screenwriters Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth to streamline Joseph Wilson's and Valerie Plame's books detailing the explosive outing of undercover CIA agent Plame into a tense docudrama thriller starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. At the time her cover was blown by the George W. Bush administration, Plame (Watts) was combing Iraq for evidence of weapons of mass destruction as part of the CIA's Counter-Proliferation Division. Her husband, American diplomat Joe Wilson was attempting to verify a claim that the Iraqis had recently purchased enriched uranium from Niger when the White House began beating the war drums before any solid evidence had been gathered. When Joe penned an editorial in The New York Times decrying the hasty call to war, a prolific Washington, D.C. journalist took the opportunity to reveal Plame's identity as a CIA operative, an act that not only put her career in jeopardy, but also left her various contacts overseas in a precarious position. Years later, a jobless and publicly disgraced Plame wages a vicious fight to clear her name, set the record straight, and keep her family from falling apart. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Category: Thriller

Awards: Film Presented – Cannes Film Festival Freedom of Expression Award – National Board of Review

Features: Audio Commentary with Valerie Plame Wilson and Joe Wilson

Fair Game

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 03/29/2011

Audio: DHMA null, DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 108 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,Spanish

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Jason Buchanan

Dirty politics get downright personal as director Doug Liman and screenwriters Jez and John-Henry Butterworth mash up Valerie Plame's Fair Game and her husband Joseph Wilson's The Politics of Truth into one potent expos? of Washington malfeasance and reckless public deception in a manufactured march to war. A slightly cold but undeniably captivating marriage drama set against the backdrop of a national scandal, Fair Game is acted with conviction and skillfully scripted, raising thoughtful questions about what it means to be a patriot in times of peril while revealing the high cost of playing hardball in the capital. And though it likely isn't the first (nor the last) time the White House nearly destroyed a marriage, the Plame case is certainly one of the most unique, given the unusual ways that its mutual protagonists' roles in politics intersected with their personal relationship. Like the best stories, it would have seemed too far-fetched to be true had we never read the headlines or heard the names on the nightly news. The story begins on October 7, 2001 -- the day the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 terror attacks. As rumblings in Washington lead the President to suspect that Saddam Hussein has been stockpiling the plutonium needed to create weapons-grade plutonium for the production of a nuclear weapon, CIA agent Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) brings in her husband, Joe (Sean Penn) -- who had previously been a diplomat to Iraq and various African countries under President George H.W. Bush, as well as President Bill Clinton's Senior Director of African Affairs on the United States Security Council -- as a consultant. Traveling to Africa as a representative of the U.S. government, Joe uses his resources and contacts to conduct a thorough investigation, ultimately concluding that there is no way Iraq could have purchased "yellow cake" in Niger undetected. Subsequently concerned that his findings have been distorted due to President George W. Bush's and Vice President Dick Cheney's war-like rhetoric leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Joe publishes a New York Times op-ed entitled "What I Didn't Find in Africa" to make the public aware that if the White House has been using his findings as a justification for invading the country, they are misinterpreting the facts. One week after that article is published, Washington Post reporter Robert Novak publicly names Valerie as a CIA operative in his syndicated weekly article. Devastated due to the fact that she has multiple active contacts in the field, and that they will most certainly be targeted by Saddam's henchmen, the woman who has always prided herself on her professionalism and devotion to family finally reaches her breaking point, just as her husband rolls up his sleeves to slug it out with some White House heavy hitters. As the powers that be offer up vice presidential adviser Scooter Libby (David Andrews) for the slaughter, Valerie and Joe fight to stay true to their convictions and save their marriage. In the opening scene of Fair Game, Valerie and Joe sit in a Washington, D.C. bar with a group of friends, watching the news as the White House announces that the U.S. has begun bombing Afghanistan. Everyone is still shell-shocked by the 9/11 terror attacks, and their inebriated debate over the politics of fear could well be an echo of a conversation any of us had on that historic day. However, in addition to reminding us of the heated public debates playing out in bars and homes across America at the time, it also serves a greater purpose within the context of the film -- to set up the character of Joe Wilson as a man who will always argue for what he believes in, regardless of the consequences. It's an early indicator that the Butterworth brothers have as firm a grip on their characters as they do the politically charged climate of the day, and it's an effective way to set up a story exploring icy wartime politics and the chilling effect they had on a marriage so inexorably bound to the government. Though at times it does feel as if the Butterworths are sacrificing story detail for brevity -- especially in scenes involving one of Valerie's active operatives (an Iraqi scientist whose promise to be protected by the U.S. government highlights the tragedy of betrayal) -- the performances in those brief scenes are powerful and, for the most part, their bid to show the far-reaching effects of such a profound betrayal of trust is very effective. Given the level of onscreen talent involved, it's little surprise that it's so easy to get swept up in the story. As a couple whose marriage has been strained to the breaking point, Penn and Watts display a chemistry that makes us feel the gravity of their situation, and Sam Shepard makes a lasting impression as Valerie's father in a brief but telling scene that exposes her true character. The screen oozes smugness every time Andrews steps into frame as the cocksure Scooter Libby, and while Liraz Charhi shines as a former Iraqi citizen who reluctantly agrees to help the CIA, her character feels sorely underwritten. Brooke Smith also gets a great moment as one of Valerie's closest friends, who never suspected that her shopping buddy was a genuine spy. Editor Christopher Tellefsen uses his sharp sense of timing to accentuate the effects that the scandal is having on Valerie and Joe's marriage and gives the film a much-needed sense of levity by placing emphasis on revealing character beats. And while his energetic visual style seems notably toned down here, director Liman does a commendable job of bringing all of the elements together so that the complicated story isn't just coherent, but carries emotional weight as well. A frequent response when someone is asked if they've read a popular book is "I'll wait for the movie." In the case of Fair Game, you'd have to read two books, and a filing cabinet's worth of government documents. Of course, everyone knows there's no way that a two-hour movie can offer a comprehensive account of a case that has so many personal and political angles, but the creative forces behind Fair Game have come pretty close, and in the process they've raised some very fascinating questions about the abuse of power, the fragile nature of the truth, and the importance of standing up for what you really believe is right. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Cast and Crew: William Pohlad  Producer 
Jerry Zucker  Producer 
Akiva Goldsman  Producer 
Doug Liman  Director 
Doug Liman  Producer 
John Powell  Composer (Music Score) 
Jez Butterworth  Producer 
Jez Butterworth  Screenwriter 
Janet Zucker  Producer 
Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda  Executive Producer 
Jeff Skoll  Executive Producer 
Kerry Foster  Executive Producer 
Mohammed Khalaf  Executive Producer 
John-Henry Butterworth  Screenwriter 
David Bartis  Executive Producer 
Naomi Watts  Actor 
Sean Penn  Actor 
Bruce McGill  Actor 
Michael Kelly  Actor 
Ty Burrell  Actor 
Noah Emmerich  Actor 
David Andrews  Actor 
Sam Shepard  Actor 
Tim Griffin  Actor 
Jessica Hecht  Actor 
Khaled Nabawy  Actor 
Liraz Charhi  Actor 
Ashley Gerasimovich  Actor 
Quinn Broggy  Actor 
Tom McCarthy  Actor 
Norbert Leo Butz  Actor 
Rebecca Rigg  Actor 
Brooke Smith  Actor 
Kristoffer Winters  Actor 
Anand Tiwari  Actor 
Mohamed Abdel Fattah  Actor 
Rashmi Rao  Actor 
Sunil Malhotra  Actor 
Jenny Maguire  Actor 
David Warshofsky  Actor 
Geoffrey Cantor  Actor 
Adam Le Fevre  Actor 
Brian McCormack  Actor 
James Rutledge  Actor 
Tricia Munford  Actor 
Michael Goodwin  Actor 
Nasser  Actor 
Polly Holliday  Actor 
Chet Grissom  Actor 
Sonya Davison  Actor 
Vanessa Chong  Actor 
Stephanie Chai  Actor 
Nicholas Sadler  Actor 
Iris Bahr  Actor 
Ghazil  Actor 
Louis Ozawa Changchien  Actor 
Remy Auberjonois  Actor 
Sean Mahon  Actor 
David Denman  Actor 
Kevin Makely  Actor 
Mousa Al Satari  Actor 
Maysa Abdel Sattar  Actor 
Rafat Basel  Actor 
Judith Resnick  Actor 
Ben Mac Brown  Actor 
Satya Bhabha  Actor 
Nabil Koni  Actor 
Mohammad Al Sawalga  Actor 
David Iklu  Actor 
Deidre Goodwin  Actor 
Donna Placido  Actor 
James Joseph O'Neil  Actor 
Danni Lang  Actor 
Jane Lee  Actor 
James Moy  Actor 
Judy Maier  Actor 
Kola Ogundrian  Actor 
Byron Utley  Actor 
Anastasia Barzee  Actor 
Sanousi Sesay  Actor 

Country: USA,United Arab Emirates