Fair Game

I followed the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story closely from the very beginning. It was one of the many offenses of the Bush administration that appalled me, and I was astonished that no one was held accountable for what was clearly multiple acts of high treason. When I first heard the story was going to be dramatized into a movie, I wasn’t sure I would see it. I was afraid it would make my blood boil again, as it had when the story originally broke. But it turns out the movie is great, based mostly on the merits of superb performances from Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. It helps too that the story is foolproof. It’s such a perfect and uncomplicated depiction of flagrant injustice, it would take a real moron to fuck it up. So director Doug Liman has a relatively simple job: don’t fuck up. He doesn’t. The pace is quick, the drama is strong, the acting is outstanding, and low and behold, by the end my blood was boiling. But the principals should all get their tuxes and dresses dry-cleaned. It’s going to be a major kudo-fest. Deservedly so. It’s a great and worthy drama.