Fair Game

This critic saw Fair Game with a very partisan audience. And, she supposes the only people going to see the screen adaptation of the book by Valerie Plame, the outed-by-the-Bush-administration CIA covert operative, are partisan. And, that's reason enough to see this bad boy in the theater.

It was such fun to hear the hisses of my fellow audience members each time W. bungled a speech or Cheney showed his menacing half-smile. And, the couple behind this critic giggled each time the actor portraying the doughy, bloated Karl Rove showed up.

But, there's nothing funny about the VP and his staff ruining the career and risking the life of a CIA agent and the lives of all the contacts she had in the field. Anyone who was outraged at the time will get mad all over again about the Bush White House retaliating against an American ambassador who told the truth about the lack of WMD in Iraq.

The acting is first-rate. Sean Penn disappears into yet another role. He is as much the attractive, cerebral and tough Joe Wilson as he was the effeminate, stubborn and heroic Harvey Milk. Naomi Watts plays Plame. And, while she doesn't look the part as much as Penn looks like the man he plays, she strikes the right balance of  tough, but weary. Plame, apparently, has been complimentary of the performance.

The movie, like the book, probably appeals only to those who are or were ever angry about the U.S. going to war over WMDs that didn't exist. But, those people should see it.