Cannes Film Festival
The presence of Doug Liman’s name in the Cannes competition lineup has inspired many an unkind crack from an idle critic — this writer couldn’t resist a couple himself. There can’t have been many filmmakers to enter that lofty club immediately after a film as uniformly reviled as “Jumper,” an inept high-concept blockbuster that drowned Liman’s flip, clever-clever personality in lumbering effects and noise.
Coming to Cannes, then, he has a dual point to prove: not only that he can hold his own among arthouse titans, but that he can even stand up against his own previous (now rather distant) best work.
Has he succeeded? Well, yes and no. Liman has chosen something of a lazy shortcut back to respectability: a biopic, of an honorable-lefty martyr figure, with just enough Washington-thriller varnish not to frighten the horses. It’s certainly a curious choice as the lone representative of U.S. cinema in the world’s foremost international film contest, but it’s oddly appropriate, too: this is down-the-middle Hollywood craftsmanship, short on innovation and revelation, but effective and engrossing with it. For better or worse, there’s nothing else like this in Competition.
Valerie Plame’s story is a good one, but you probably know that already. Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with a newspaper in 2003 can’t have failed to hear of “Plamegate,” in which the soccer-mom-like CIA operative was unmasked by the Washington Post, presumably as retribution for her husband Joseph Wilson’s critical investigation into the government’s war-justifying WMD claims — with the couple emerging as a Democratic cause célèbre in the process.
Adapted from both Plame’s and Wilson’s respective autobiographies, Jez and John-Henry Butterworth’s crisp, matter-of-fact screenplay lays out the personal and political fallout of the events in strictly linear fashion — a far cry from the more flamboyant strokes of the former brother’s stage writing — while the film clocks in at a tidy 106 minutes. It doesn’t embellish the facts with anything we didn’t already know (or at least suspect), but the liberal audience at whom the film is exclusively aimed will feel suitably fist-pumped by the recap.
Naomi Watts is ideally cast as Plame, really warming to her character as she becomes more imperiled. Liman’s snap closing-credits cut, segueing from Watts delivering Plame’s climactic testimony to archive footage of the real-life Plame doing the same, is an unsubtle trick that nonetheless marks out the close physical and vocal continuity between actress and subject: there’s enough here to build an Oscar campaign on. Sean Penn, a rather on-the-nose choice to play a loudmouth liberal with WMD issues, has less to work with, but emotes nobly enough under his unfortunate Jim Cameron-like barnet.
Liman, meanwhile, mostly atones for his past bad form, but his personality remains resolutely leash-bound. There are odd flashes of his one-time hipster quirk — not least in the offbeat musical cue of Gorillaz’s “Clint Eastwood” over the opening credits — but for the most part, he plays safe, channeling the sober, grey-toned gravitas of Alan J. Pakula’s mainstream political thrillers of the 1970s, and making rather a good stab at it. (Whether the film has the requisite oomph for the American awards it appears to be aiming for is another matter.)
It’d be nice to see Liman reconcile this new grown-up persona with the wit and zip of his 1990s “Go” days, but for now, “Fair Game” works as an efficient bit of career rehab: he’s still the odd man out on the Croisette, but there’s no reason to point and stare.
Comments
13 responses to “SHORT TAKE: “Fair Game” (***)”
Sounds interesting. With the film being based on Plame and Wilson’s autobiographies, I cannot help myself but say that these two liars benefited from their so-called “peril.” Valerie Plame was not a covert agent, and Wilson was essentially and anti-Bush, anti-War zealot. But I’m sure this film has potential.
“with the couple emerging as a Democrat cause célèbre in the process”
I know that a Brit you probably did not mean it, but that is like nails on a chalkboard. Democratic, Guy, Democratic.
I guess.. with 3 powerful performances .. in a single year .. Naomi has every chance to go up the dias in the next year Oscars .. wat say ??
James D: Sorry, I mean it to be noun-as-adjective. No offence meant.
Gautam: Three powerful performances? She’s really not a standout in the Allen, if that’s what you’re including. In any case, she won’t win for this — I wouldn’t necessarily count on a nomination.
@ Guy
I’m sure she will be nominated .. nd after nomination.. thr are various other things coming into picture .. like Bullock’s perf. wasn’t outstanding either but then she has been a veteran in Hollywood.. nd they cudn’t have given the award to Meryl the 3rd time nd niether to 19 year old Muligan .. thts why .. I am of the opinion .. once she gets nominated she has every bit of chance to bag it too !!
I think this was probably the best review I’ve read about this film yet, and it might be one of your best written reviews that I have had the pleasure to read. Seriously that was eloquent and to the point, and a good job all around. I think I will make a trip to see it when it eventually comes out b/c I love Watts and Penn even if it seems that most critics think of this film as a good (but not great) film. I wont be upset if Watts gets an Oscar push for this film. If Bullock can win an Oscar for The Blind Side then this film is as worthy a role as any to try to go for the gold.
@ Michael
So true .. Naomi shd have got tht eluding oscar long back for Mulholland Drive .. hw does it matter if this is Naomi’s great performance nd not the best …
she desreves an oscar nyways ..
My guess is that Watts will get her Oscar for Andrew Dominick’s BLOND, about Marilyn Monroe, when that gets released next year.
No offense taken, Guy. Good review, though!
Dean Treadway: I had not heard about Andrew Dominik making another film. I thought he was still in director’s jail. This is the best film news of the year. Thank you!
[…] A presença de Liman na programação oficial foi alvo de muitas críticas por ser exatamente seu filme após o fracasso unânime Jumper. Para o bem ou para o mal, não há nada como Fair Game na competição, uma espécie de atalho do diretor para os filmes respeitáveis. (Guy Lodge, InContention) + […]
I hope Watts get nominated for something but the win for Marilynn Monroe would be awesome.
I have such appreciation for her because it`s easy to be great in a great movie but Watts was fantastic in that utter garbage King Kong and that`s a heroic feat for an actor. She was so robbed of the nomination for that one.
I know that the Monroe film isn’t strictly a biopic (from what I understand at least) but she needs to put on some weight to play Monroe. Too bony. I can’t even imagine her with a curvy frame.
[…] has gotten a fair amount of buzz from the movie being shown at Cannes and other festivals; Guy Lodge of In Contention remarked: “Naomi Watts is ideally cast as Plame, really warming to her character […]