Fair Game (2010)
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 169
Fresh: 134 | Rotten: 35
It struggles with the balance between fact-based biopic and taut political thriller, but Fair Game brims with righteous anger -- and benefits from superb performances by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.
Average Rating: 7/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 9
It struggles with the balance between fact-based biopic and taut political thriller, but Fair Game brims with righteous anger -- and benefits from superb performances by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.
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Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 27,434
My Rating
Movie Info
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
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Cast
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Naomi Watts
Valerie Plame Wilson -
Sean Penn
Joe Wilson -
Bruce McGill
Jim Pavitt -
Michael Kelly
Jack -
Ty Burrell
Fred -
Noah Emmerich
Bill -
David Andrews
Scooter Libby -
Sam Shepard
Sam Plame -
Tim Griffin
Paul -
Jessica Hecht
Sue -
Khaled Nabawy
Hammad -
Liraz Charchi
Dr. Zahraa -
Ashley Gerasimovich
Samantha Wilson -
Quinn Broggy
Trevor Wilson -
Tom McCarthy
Jeff -
Norbert Leo Butz
Steve -
Rebecca Rigg
Lisa -
Brooke Smith
Diana -
Kristoffer Ryan Winters
Joe Turner -
Anand Tiwari
Hafiz -
Mohamed Abdel Fattah
Professor Badawi -
Rashmi Rao
Kim -
Sunil Malhotra
Ali -
Jenny Maguire
Beth -
David Warshofsky
Pete -
Geoffrey Cantor
Ari Fleischer -
Adam Le Fevre
Karl Rove -
Brian McCormack
Steven Hadley -
James Rutledge
Andrew Card -
Tricia Munford
Cathie Martin -
Michael Goodwin
David Addington -
Nasser
Mr. Tabir -
Polly Holliday
Diane Plame -
Chet Grissom
Director of CIA Operati... -
Sonya Davison
Chanel Suit -
Vanessa Chong
Tabir Secretary #1 -
Stephanie Chai
Tabir Secretary #2 -
Nicholas Sadler
CIA Tour Leader -
Iris Bahr
CPD Agent -
Ghazil
Minister of Mines - Nig... -
Louis Ozawa Changchien
Nervous Analyst #1 -
Remy Auberjonois
Nervous Analyst #2 -
Sean Mahon
CIA Analyst #1 -
David Denman
Nervous Dave -
Kevin Makely
Jordan Officer #1 -
Mousa Al Satari
Mukhabarat Officer -
Maysa Abdel Sattar
Hammad's Wife -
Rafat Basel
Hammad's Son -
Judith Resnick
B.U. Professor -
Ben Mac Brown
B.U. Student #1 -
Satya Bhabha
B.U. Student #2 -
Nabil Koni
Iraqi Scientist #1 -
Mohammad Al Sawalga
Iraqi Scientist #2 -
David Iklu
Journalist #1 -
Deidre Goodwin
Journalist #2 -
Donna Placido
Journalist #3 -
James Joseph O'Neil
Internal Security Offic... -
Danni Lang
Supporter #1 -
Jane Lee
Supporter #2 -
James Moy
Field Reporter #1 -
Judy Maier
Field Reporter #2 -
Kola Ogundrian
Businessman #1 -
Byron Utley
Businessman #2 -
Anastasia Barzee
Right Wing Reporter -
Sanousi Sesay
DC Cab Driver
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Fair Game Trailer & Photos
All Critics (169) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (136) | Rotten (35) | DVD (4)
This isn't a message movie, per se, but a strong point of view comes through regardless: In the battle of principles vs. politics, politics always win.
Top CriticAn absorbing, unhysterical thriller that largely rejects the clichés of the genre.
Fair Game" is such a brutal and personal testimony to the consequences of dirty politics that it often feels too ugly to be true. Unfortunately, it is.
For every spycraft scene, every illustration of the deadly blowback from the leak that Liman dramatizes, the movie has half a dozen scenes of a delicately balanced home life turned on its head by a government bent on destroying one of its critics.
Naomi Watts settles for semi-inscrutability while Penn, engaging as he is, is encouraged, particularly toward the end, to deliver his performance from the lectern.
You'd have to go back to All the President's Men for a better example of fresh American political scandal being turned into slam-bang, star-powered drama.
Naomi Watt delivers but the script offers a lifeless story and too many one-dimensional characters to name.
If the filmmakers had skimmed off some of the exposition from the first half, and tightened it up in order to get to the main part of the story faster, it would have worked a lot better.
Another of Participant Media's earnest, well-meaning, well-made, but rather dry efforts that definitely do their job in conveying the intended message but not so much as engaging drama.
Gripping real-life spy movie Fair Game, a sober and sobering account of the double-dealing of the Bush White House in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq.
Despite its flaws, this movie feels necessary.
The cast is great, but the material is dated, and the political thrills are not always perfectly sharp.
The script is intelligent, the acting is understated yet powerful, and the actors were well cast at all levels.
confirmation that all is well for only as long as everyone agrees not to know anything
Terrific acting and a sharp, brainy script hold our interest, but we never properly feel the emotional punch.
If you watched the news while all this was going down, you don't really need to see this movie, but it's good that it exists.
Fair Game is interesting if only to witness the war of words on both sides and see the actual damage [Plame's] outing caused.
A drama about the cost of idealism and sticking to your guns in order to bring truth to the light.
Não há como negar que os grandes vilões de Jogo de Poder não se encontram no Afeganistão ou no Iraque, mas na Casa Branca.
Although the outline of this story is well known, Fair Game gives it dramatic shape and teases out the moral problems raised.
The script, based on memoirs of their experience by Wilson and Plame, has two stories to tell -- the run-up to Iraq, and the portrait of a marriage under fire -- and combines them very adroitly.
A more self-indulgent piece of movie-making is hard to imagine.
Audience Reviews for Fair Game
Super Reviewer
This is a film which lands it's hooks to audience immediatly from it's opening scenes. Liman's direction is very tight here and his way to use camera is equally impressive and innovative. He cleverly mixes real documentary footage into a filmed scenes and the result is riveting. This is politically charged filmmaking at it's most powerful.
There are few directors in this world who can create tension like Liman does. Here he even turn conversations exciting and nail biting experience to watch. Not only he is capable to entertain viewer but he is equally talented to bring the best from his actors and crew. Naomi Watts has never been better than she is here as a Valerie Plame. Sean Penn is equally good in a role that demands very much from him. His Joe Wilson is man in a need of telling the truth and earning the justice. As these characters both get tangled more and more deeper in a complex web of deception and threat the whole film just get more and more exciting to watch. Fair Game is easily one of the finest political thrillers that has been made.
It becomes a also a drama about two people in a serious pressure and serves a well nuanced story about humans on the edge of their personal breaking point.
Where Liman's Bourne Identity and Jumper were both films more about physical action, Fair Game is film where action and tension is created by words and atmosphere. This all comes to me as a very welcome surprise and something that we are not used to see that often anymore in a filmmaking anymore.
I must also mention some of the fantastic technical virtues of this great film. First of all it was not only directed and produced by Liman himself, but also photographed too and he does balanced work in all of those fields. His sense of urgency and the constant hectic feel pushes it's way through from his images. He truly seems to understand his characters and the situation they are going through here.
I also need to mention the career best score by talented composer John Powell which adds tension and complexity into this film more than i can express with my words. It is truly a Powell's finest hour yet. Fair Game is a important and poignant film with authentic feel and a further proof of Doug Liman's mastery as an filmmaker. There are minor flaws at times in this film's pacing and Sean Penn's cliched, supposed to be uplifting, speech in the end feels totally unnecessary and even a bit corny. Still Fair Game manages to glue us into our seats with it's twisty and suspenseful story.
Super Reviewer
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- Valerie Plame Wilson: It's the White House. Do you seriously think you pick a fight with the White House and win? They'll bury us!
- Joe Wilson: They bury us if we don't!
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- Valerie Plame Wilson: When Kammel was executed in 95 the team just drifted apart. They're all saying the same thing. There is no weapons program.
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- Internal Security Officer: I don't know anything about the tubes. I'm not qualified.
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- Joe Wilson: If I yell louder, does that make what I'm saying right!?
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- Joe Wilson: The responsibility of a country is not in the hands of a privileged few. We are strong, and we are free from tyranny as long as each one of us remembers his or her duty as a citizen. Whether it's to report a pothole at the top of your street or lies in a State of the Union address, speak out! Ask those questions. Demand that truth. Democracy is not a free ride, man. I'm here to tell you. But, this is where we live. And if we do our job, this is where our children will live. God bless America.
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- Dr. Zahraa: How do you do it? Lie to someone to their face? Huh?
- Valerie Plame Wilson: You have to know, know why you're lying... And never forget the truth.
Discussion Forum
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Latest News on Fair Game
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