Although both based on a true story and overtly political, Fair Game deftly avoids the problems closely associated with both of those genres and proves to be a well-acting, expertly-directed, engaging political thriller.

Fair Game is the true story of Valerie Plame, a CIA spy whose identity was leaked to the press by the White House in retaliation for her husband’s anti-war op-ed in the New York Times. The Plame Affair, as it came to be called, garnered an enormous amount of press coverage and resulted in the indictment of Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff Scooter Libby. Typically, “based on a true story” films devolve into predictable feel-good stuff but this is not the case with this film. Instead, this real story only serves as the narrative which unfolds through restraint and tells its story with emotion not melodrama.

Naomi Watts and Sean Penn are the core of the movie as Valerie Plame and Joseph C. Wilson, the couple at the center of the story.  Both of their characters have two halves in a way. There’s the ordinary family side that we see at the beginning of the film in addition to the CIA operative and foreign policy expert parts of their characters.Watts and Penn portray their characters honestly as real people, which is key to this personal drama. Rather than focus on the high-level politics of the event, the film is all about these two people struggling to stay together in a time of such trial.

In this decade, director Doug Liman has established himself as one of the best in the smart spy action genre with The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Jumper. With Fair Game, the director returns to themes he has explored before (specifically spies and couples) but tones down the action in exchange for more character development and dialogue-driven drama. This reverses some of the damage done by Jumper, which failed tremendously in terms of story, characters, and acting but delivered some good set pieces. Still, the film moves forward very quickly and never loses your attention. Using techniques perfected while directing action for this drama is interesting. At some points, however, the ever-so-subtly-shaking handheld camera feels out-of-place. With that being said, the film makes great use of camera work and even news clips to play out the story in the most engaging way possible.

The story of Valerie Plame spans continents and involves spies, a war, and a conspiracy but the film doesn’t feel too large. The tone of the film is reserved, yet engaging. The large story is told in detail, but you empathize with Plame and her husband and, at least for the first half of the film, forget about the politics involved.

Fair Game is still very much a political drama rather than an action thriller. The typical downfall of politically-themed movies, namely painfully obvious polemic , is avoided, however, by focusing on the characters involved. It all keeps coming down to that. In order to effectively weave such a tale of political intrigue the film must narrow its gaze and allow the characters themselves to take the audience along the ride with them. The movie definitely has something to say beyond the obvious anti-War on Terror sentiment. The main theme of the film is to stand up for what you believe in, don’t let injustice go unchecked. In fact, the final scene of the film consists of Sean Penn literally preaching to us, but you know what? I don’t mind it. Having this theme summarized for us at the end only highlighted how important that idea was to the filmmakers.

Fair Game is a fantastic change of pace of director Doug Liman, who rather than craft fantastic action sequences, maintains this engaging thriller with the help of two great performances and a tone that keeps the movie from devolving into partisan politics.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

On Thursday morning, Thierry Fremaux, head of the Cannes Film Festival, revealed the films that will be playing at this year’s Festival de Cannes.

American entries include Doug Liman’s (The Bourne Identity) Fair Game, a political thriller starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, which will be competing for the Palm d’Or as well as Inside Job, Kaboom, Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Sundance winner Blue Valentine, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, which will open the festival, and Woody Allen’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.

See the complete list of films below:

Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf in Wall Street 2

Opener
Robin Hood, U.S.-U.K., Ridley Scott

Competition
Another Year, U.K., Mike Leigh
Biutiful, Spain-Mexico, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Burnt by the Sun 2, Germany-France-Russia, Nikita Mikhalkov
Certified Copy, France-Italy-Iran, Abbas Kiarostami
Fair Game, U.S., Doug Liman
Hors-la-loi, France-Belgium-Algeria, Rachid Bouchareb
The Housemaid, South Korea, Im Sang-soo
La nostra vita, Italy-France, Daniele Luchetti
La Princesse de Montpensier, France, Bertrand Tavernier
Of Gods and Men, France, Xavier Beauvois
Outrage, Japan, Takeshi Kitano
Poetry, South Korea, Lee Chang-dong
A Screaming Man, France-Belgium-Chad, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Tournee, France, Mathieu Amalric
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Spain-Thailand-Germany-U.K.-France, Apichatpong Weerasethakul
You, My Joy, Ukraine-Germany, Sergey Loznitsa

Un Certain Regard
Adrienn Pal, Hungary-Netherlands-France-Austria, Agnes Kocsis
Aurora, Romania, Cristi Puiu
Blue Valentine, U.S., Derek Cianfrance
Chatroom, U.K., Hideo Nakata
Chongqing Blues, China, Wang Xiaoshuai
The City Below, Germany-France, Christoph Hochhausler
Film Socialisme, Switzerland-France, Jean-Luc Godard
Ha Ha Ha, South Korea, Hong Sang-soo
Les Amours imaginaires, Canada, Xavier Dolan
Life Above All, France, Oliver Schmitz
Los labios, Argentina, Ivan Fund, Santiago Loza
Octubre, Peru, Daniel Vega
Qu’est-il arrive a Simon Werner?, France, Fabrice Gobert
Rebecca H., France, Lodge Kerrigan
R U There, Netherlands, David Verbeek
The Strange Case of Angelica, Portugal, Manoel de Oliveira
Tuesday, After Christmas, Romania, Radu Muntean
Udaan, India, Vikramaditya Motwane

Out of Competition
Tamara Drewe, U.K., Stephen Frears
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, U.S., Oliver Stone
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, U.K.-Spain, Woody Allen

Midnight Screenings
Kaboom, U.S.-France, Gregg Araki
L’autre monde, France-Belgium, Gilles Marchand

Special Screenings
Abel, Mexico, Diego Luna
Chantrapas, France, Otar Iosseliani
Draquila — L’Italia che trema, Italy, Sabina Guzzanti
Inside Job, U.S., Charles Ferguson
Nostalgia de la luz, France, Patricio Guzman 
Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow, Netherlands, Sophie Fiennes

This year’s competition jury is presided over by director Tim Burton and also includes Benicio Del Toro and Kate Beckinsale. The prestigious festival’s 63rd competition will take place from May 12th until the 23rd.

Apple has just released a HD trailer for the sci-fi action thriller Jumper. Its being directed by Doug Liman, who has brought us Bourne Identity and Mr and Mrs Smith. I think it may be enjoyable. Possibly a theater see, but most likely a rental.

[flv:/trailers/jumper2.flv 480 368]

Enjoy !