March's Film of the Month: Fair Game
While Paul Greengrass is the director most commonly associated with the excellent Bourne trilogy, we shouldn't forget it was Doug Liman, the man who gave us 'Swingers' and 'Go', who helmed the first instalment. And, while Greengrass delivered an incredibly mediocre melodrama about the US military operation in Iraq ('Green Zone'), Liman's name is now associated with a strong political thriller about a compelling side-story to the 2003 invasion.
'Fair Game' tells the tale of the "Plamegate" scandal - where a CIA operative was named (and therefore compromised) by the US administration, in revenge for her husband's public questioning of the intelligence that fuelled the decision to send troops into Iraq. Naomi Watts plays Valerie Plame, while Sean Penn portrays her partner, former ambassador Joe Wilson.
Watts and Penn, last seen on screen together in '21 Grams', deliver top-notch performances, while the supporting cast is solid, particularly David Andrews and Adam LeFevre who provide suitably odious versions of Scooter Libby and Karl Rove. The script is decent, even if it does drop into "clicheville" on one or two occasions.
But it's Liman's direction that often stands out - and not in a good way. It seems the film-maker is trying to copy Paul Greengrass's fast, immediate camera-work, but his awkward pans and tilts fail to give the film a fly-on-the-wall feel. Instead, these stylistic touches draw our attention to the fact we're watching a movie and distract from important dialogue exchanges and scenes of emotional human drama.
Overall, however, this is an intelligent thriller, made more than watchable by its two leads.
