Fair Game (2010)

CIA operative Valerie Plame discovers her identity is allegedly leaked by the government as payback for an op-ed article her husband wrote criticizing the Bush administration.

Director:

Doug Liman

Writers:

Jez Butterworth (screenplay), John-Henry Butterworth (screenplay)

Stars:

Naomi Watts, Sean Penn, Sonya Davison

4 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Naomi Watts	...	Valerie Plame
Sonya Davison	...	Chanel Suit
Vanessa Chong	...	Tabir Secretary #1
Anand Tiwari	...	Hafiz
Stephanie Chai	...	Tabir Secretary #2
Sean Penn	...	Joe Wilson
Ty Burrell	...	Fred
Jessica Hecht	...	Sue
Norbert Leo Butz	...	Steve
Rebecca Rigg	...	Lisa
Brooke Smith	...	Diana
Tom McCarthy	...	Jeff
Ashley Gerasimovich	...	Samantha Wilson
Quinn Broggy	...	Trevor Wilson
Nicholas Sadler	...	CIA Tour Leader

Storyline

Plame's status as a CIA agent was revealed by White House officials allegedly out to discredit her husband after he wrote a 2003 New York Times op-ed piece saying that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq.

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Plot Keywords:

cia agent | year 1972 | year 1985 | year 1982 | year 1992 | 

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Taglines:

Inspired by true events.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Show-business trade paper 'Variety' reported in an article by Michael Fleming published on 23 February 2009 that star Sean Penn and Bill Pohlad already had "a strong relationship" prior to this film's financing and development. It read: "He was a producer on the Terrence Malick-directed The Tree of Life (2011), which stars Penn and Brad Pitt, and a producer and financier for Into the Wild (2007), which Penn directed."

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Goofs

The propaganda leaflets/pamphlets dropped by the helicopter in Baghdad is shown to have one side written in English and the other in Arabic, but the Arabic letters appear to be disconnected from each other. This might however be intentional because this mistake might have been done by the US army back in 2003.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Valerie Plame: [arriving at Kuala Lumpur airport] Jessica McDowell, Gnosos Chemicals.
Chanel Suit: [on elevator] When do you leave Kuala Lumpur, Miss McDowell?
Valerie Plame: I fly to Taiwan Tuesday, then back to Düsseldorf.

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Crazy Credits

The film's closing credits declare: "Democracy only works if you do your part", and citing the website link - www.takepart.com/fairgame.

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Alternate Versions

Doug Liman re-cut the film for a "2018 director's cut" that runs about six minutes longer.

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Connections

Features Meet the Press (1947)

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Soundtracks

Kese Kese
Written and Performed by Cheb i Sabbah
Courtesy of Six Degrees Records
By Arrangement with Ocean Park Music Group

User Reviews

A good adaptation of the Valerie Plame scandal.

"When did the question move from 'Why are we going to war?' to 'Who is this man's wife?'"

Fair Game takes the huge media storm of a few years ago surrounding the leaked identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, and focuses on the strain placed on her and her family by the intentional exposure of her identity by government officials in retaliation for her husband's infamous New York Times op-ed piece. 

Movies based on actual, heavily politically-charged events usually aren't my thing, but Naomi Watts as Valerie and Sean Penn as her husband really do an excellent job of conveying this serious, and at times troubling, story. Watts portrays Plame as an intelligent and capable woman who is easy to sympathize with. As she's effectively blocked out from her job at the CIA and her personal life begins to swiftly unravel, she keeps a steely resolve that's wholly believable. And while Sean Penn doesn't have to stretch far for his character, he also makes him feel like a genuine person. Great acting from them both to compliment the solid script. 

Anyone even casually interested in the Valerie Plame scandal should check this out, as it's a pretty darn good (and thought-provoking) adaptation of a dark time in our country's recent history.

Details

Official Sites:

Full Production Notes - MS Word [Australia] Official site [Germany]

Country:

USA United Arab Emirates

Language:

English Arabic French

Release Date:

3 December 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Plame and Wilson Biopic

Filming Locations:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$651,082, 7 November 2010

Gross USA:

$9,540,691

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$25,806,953

Company Credits

Production Co:

River Road Entertainment, Participant, Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min 114 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1