Fair Game (2010)

Based on memoirs by outed CIA agent Valerie Plame and her husband Ambassador Joe Wilson, this is engaging and suspenseful, even if we know how it's going to end. Naomi Watts and Sean Penn show how smart, passionate people can blend their love of family with challenging international careers...until everything gets fubar. Watts (after I wrote about her in Mother and Child, which may get her another nomination, she was in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger) is less glamorous than usual here, as would be expected of a hard working mother of elementary school age twins, but is still lovely and in great shape (I liked her wardrobe, too). She is also a good choice to play the attractive Plame (here's a photo of them together). I last wrote about Penn in Milk, which won him a second Oscar and a fifth nomination. He's terrific in this, as is the huge and varied supporting cast. Director Doug Liman (Swingers (1996), Go (1999), The Bourne Identity (2002 - and producer of the other two Bournes), Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005), and Jumper (2008)) keeps the pace moving fast in the script adapted by brothers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth.

Though the Washington Post published an editorial stating that the movie plays fast and loose with the facts, Plame, who was photographed on the set, stands by it. Roger Ebert agrees with it (no spoilers) and 80% of critics and 72% of viewers liked it (on rottentomatoes). Jack and I did, too.

There are various letters highlighted in yellow in the credits. I tried to figure out if they spelled anything, but couldn't do it. I suspect if it really is a code, as imdb says it is, the letters are jumbled and/or it's something we'll have to wait for the DVD to crack it. The music, by the prolific John Powell (I wrote about him in How to Train Your Dragon), is exciting and perfect for the pictures on the screen.

Sorry I'm so behind in my blogging, and that I didn't go into the rest of the cast in detail. I've either got a mild cold or am going to get the awful one I was exposed to 10 days ago. Speaking of sick, here's a warning to my fellow motion-picture-motion-sickness (MPMS) sufferers: there's a lot of jerky hand-held camera work by Liman (who hasn't photographed a movie since Go). About halfway through I started wondering what I had had for lunch that was making me feel so awful. By the time I was semi-horizontal across two seats, I realized it was the MPMS and had to shut my eyes repeatedly. The good news is that the hand-held shots are interspersed with stationary ones so I could peek and see when it was safe to watch. I'm going to start a list of these hazardous MPMS titles and I invite you to submit suggestions for the list, as well as suggestions for a cure!