• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today.

Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films.

Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com/user/jsjkim, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReThinkReviews. ReThink Reviews’ theme song is by Restavrant.

Fair Game

The film Fair Game is based on the true story of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent specializing in WMDs played by Naomi Watts, and Plame’s husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, played by Sean Penn. In case you didn’t know, Wilson went public in 2003 to debunk George W. Bush’s notorious State of the Union lie about Iraq’s attempts to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger. That’s when the White House leaked Plame’s name to several journalists, blowing Plame’s cover in a move that could either be seen as petty retaliation and/or mindboggling cluelessness that endangered agents, ongoing operations, and national security.

Fair Game clears up some important lies pushed by defenders of the Bush administration, like whether Plame was actually an undercover agent (which she was); if she was responsible for sending her husband to Niger (which she wasn’t); and if Plame being outed weakened national security (which it did). When Plame’s name was made public, all of the operations she had been involved in tracking down WMDs were compromised, the front company she used as cover was exposed, and all of the agents, assets and sources she had worked with were put in danger, which is illustrated by a fictional but no doubt realistic subplot about a nuclear scientist Plame tries to have smuggled out of Iraq. We also see the mendacity and/or willful ignorance of republican politicians, pundits and media as they celebrate Plame’s outing, downplay its consequences, and contend that she somehow deserved it.

But Fair Game’s main focus is how the lives of Plame and Wilson were upended as the scandal unfolded, straining their marriage to the breaking point. What’s refreshing about this is that we get to see something rare in films — a relationship of total equals, where Plame and Wilson are both experienced, respected, highly-trained professionals who share the duties of raising their two young children. Plame isn’t a strong female character because she goes out and kicks ass like Angelina Jolie in Salt, but because she’s brave, intelligent, and extremely capable. Fair Game also gives you a look at the actual lives of spies, which mostly consists of a lot of unglamorous fact-checking and deskwork in cramped, untechnologically-advanced offices.

The tension comes from how Plame and Wilson’s differing personalities deal with the weight of the most imperial presidency in American history bearing down on them. Wilson is outspoken and confrontational while Plame is a professional secret-keeper whose job requires her to remain under the radar. And by taking the fight public, Wilson is going against all of Plame’s training and instincts.

While Plame and Wilson’s relationship is an interesting footnote, my problem is that I ultimately don’t care much about it, especially when those ultimately responsible for the leak like Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and possibly George W. Bush are still walking free. There’s still so much to be uncovered about the Plame affair and the White House’s strategy of manipulating WMD intelligence and punishing those who questioned it, and as someone interested in politics, that’s what I want to know about. But since Fair Game is dealing with recent events, new information hasn’t yet come to light. Scripted movies inevitably focus more on emotions and relationships to attract a wider audience, but that’s not what I want from a movie about the Plame affair. For this political critic, I’ll still be waiting for the documentary.

Fair Game is rated PG-13 and is in theaters now.