I saw the movie Fair Game on Saturday, by myself, and was disappointed. I was clearer afterward about Valerie Plame and what the events were that caused her outing by Karl Rove and others, but there was something about the whole movie that left a bad taste in my mouth. The fact that she offered herself up to the CIA out of college and wasn't even recruited, the knowledge she had young children and they seemed shuffled around without being anyone's first priority, the righteousness of her husband, her fear of retaliation, all seemed disturbing and slightly inauthentic. Her fear for informants and people in the field was the most moving part of the movie. I don't know if I'd recommend this movie. It seems like reading an extensive book about it would be more informative and maybe even more illuminating. The movie tries too hard to be All The President's Men, and somehow it isn't as persuasive.
But perhaps I am callous about all the breaches of ethics in the Bush administration at this time. There were so many, and they all add up to lying to the American people and the world in order to carry out actions for reasons other than those stated. So this movie, a kind of defense of the CIA, rings hollow, at least to me. I don't think anyone was on the people's side, and especially not the CIA.
And - news flash - many of us knew at the time that none of the stated reasons for going into Iraq were persuasive. We knew there was not enough evidence from enough sources to take such an action. We marched. We wrote letters to our congresspeople. So this is not a shocker to a lot of people who will go to this movie; the skeptical kind of viewer who already knows that happened, at least the big picture. The people who might benefit from seeing it will not go. And maybe that is for the best, as I can't imagine this movie changing anybody's mind about anything. But Naomi Watts sure is cute.
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