Ahhh, Cindy Crawford and one of the Baldwin brothers bumble their way through…sorry, hang on. With nothing to do with the 1995 pile of junk, this years Fair Game stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.
Watts plays Valerie Plame who works for the CIA and finds herself the center of a whole load of unwanted attention after her identity is leaked by the government as payback for her husband, Joe Wilson, writing an article criticizing the Bush administration. There’s a bit of cat and mouse going on as Wilson does plenty of talk show circuits trying to do the right thing for his family etc. Will justice prevail at the end? Or will a few of the most powerful blokes in the world get their own way as usual.
To be brutally honest, I found Fair Game a bit of a tough watch. Sean Penn rarely get’s into top gear and just plunders through the script without breaking a sweat. On the other hand, his on screen wife, Watt’s does break a sweat. So much so, that her performance is a bit transparent. She’s trying too hard (maybe due to her co-star heavyweight) and it shows. All that said, the performances aren’t too bad, but on a number of occasions they don’t feel convincing and the chemistry is hit and miss between Penn and Watts.
Fair Game is directed by Doug Liman (Swingers, Bourne Identity) and at times it goes a little overboard on the hand held style stuff. Again, it’s trying very hard to be an almost fly on the wall style flick. Credit to Liman, the picture has pace but overall it feels far too long and drawn out. As for the story, it’s convoluted pulp which gets bland and lame quite quickly. For a movie that is classed as a thriller, there is very little thrilling about Fair Game. Overall the whole thing feels cheaply made and has lacklustre performances from what is a decent cast. On the plus side it may well cure any insomniacs. If you don’t see this on the big screen or the small screen, I wouldn’t be getting too upset about it!
Director: Doug Liman
Starring: Naomi Watts, Sean Penn
Running Time: 108 minutes
Certificate: 12A IRE / 12A UK
Released: Mar 11 2011 (IRE)
