Whether she's walking the halls of the CIA, dealing with a foreign contact in a tense situation or preparing breakfast for her family, Naomi Watts inhabits Fair Game with a cool, steely-eyed demeanor that rarely breaks, even when surrounded by her collection of well-off Washingtonian friends at dinner parties. Watts perfectly embodies Valerie Plame, the infamous ex-covert CIA agent who was said to be exposed by members of the Bush administration following her husband's controversial op-ed contradicting the White House's assertion about Iraq's supposed purchase of nuclear materials from Niger. Indeed, Watts marches through each scene with a military-style determination that transcends the politics of the movie, creating an interesting study in character instead.
This is no easy task, and as Game spends its 108 minutes struggling to find its own identity, Watts' performance becomes all the more appreciated. The story itself swings back and forth between being a pertinent yet tepid political thriller and a domestic drama tracking the dissolution and then recovery of a marriage. The ever-righteous - sometimes to a nauseating degree - Sean Penn plays Plame's husband, Joe Wilson, and their scenes together in their Georgetown home are among the best the film has to offer.
The intrigue of the Plame affair is well-documented, and Game makes no attempt to hide where its allegiance lies. Former White House officials Scooter Libby and Karl Rove are portrayed as devious puppet masters, eager to drive Wilson and Plame outside of the beltway, while the husband and wife duo are cast in a melodramatic yet sympathetic light. Director Doug Liman does his best to make the Plame affair a nail-biting situation, and although there are thrilling moments to be found, the nuances within the marriage of the two main characters is where the real drama lies.
It is difficult to put politics aside when watching Fair Game, but it would not be the same story nevertheless. Your political beliefs - and particularly whether you believe Rove and Libby should be locked in a jail cell in the near future - will likely affect your opinion of Game, which has a story that feels renewed in its relevance following this month's recent elections. The domestic struggle and Plame's internal struggle, however, feature far more universal themes, such as the importance of resilience, marital solidarity and standing up for your beliefs.
The film concludes with a scene showing Watts walking into the Capitol building, prepared to testify at the hearing revolving around the leaking of her name into the public domain. Watts is as exceptional in the final scene as she is in the first, but there is an ambivalence in the air that leaves the viewer feeling that the Bush-era politics she is fighting against have not disappeared, making this Game seem anything but fair.
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