Cannes, France — Major Oscar buzz and controversy greeted yesterday’s premiere of “Fair Game,” a depiction of the Plame-gate scandal and the only American film competing for the Palme d’Or, the top honor at the Cannes Film Festival.
Naomi Watts and Sean Penn are being tipped for Oscar nods for the political spy thriller based on memoirs by exposed CIA supervisor Valerie Plame and her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who claims his wife was deliberately exposed by the Bush administration. Penn, a favorite here partly because of his leftist views, was absent from yesterday’s press conference so he could testify about Haiti before Congress.
“She’s a real woman, and more of a woman than I have played thus far,” says Aussie actress Watts, who previously co-starred with Penn in “21 Grams.”
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“A lot of the material I have played in the past has been about women in some kind of psychosis,” she says. “But this woman [Plame] transcends her psychosis, and not alone. She has this incredible husband, Joe Wilson, who gives her the encouragement and strength and belief that they are strong enough to go forward and tell the truth.”
Plame, who worked for the CIA for 18 years until her cover as a venture capitalist was blown in a newspaper column, initially stayed silent — even though she now says she had intelligence contradicting the Bush administration’s claim that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons.
But her husband went public. Wilson wrote an article claiming the White House ignored his own non-covert mission because it conflicted with the administration’s post-9/11 plans to invade Iraq.
“Fair Game” is guaranteed to reignite the debate over the roles of Plame and Wilson — labeled traitors by some on the right — and White House officials who, Wilson claims, decided his wife was “fair game” because he exposed their deceit.
In the end, only vice presidential adviser I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was charged and convicted of crimes in the scandal, but his 30-month prison sentence was commuted by President Bush.
Much of the film centers on the Wilsons’ marriage, which is tested by the husband’s decision to fight the White House in the media as the country is going to war.
The deeply secretive Plame opposes this, even after her cover is blown and her career destroyed following what her extroverted husband calls deliberate retaliation for his speaking out.
The film depicts several arguments, including a shouting match, with Wilson at one point exiled from the marital bed. The couple rallies together amid death threats and out of concern for their young children.
The film ends with Plame going public by testifying before Congress with the encouragement of not only her husband but also her father, a retired military officer played by Sam Shepard.
“Fair Game” will be released toward the end of the year to qualify for Oscar nominations, which may also include Best Picture and Best Director if yesterday’s press reaction is any indication.
Whether it will find a mass audience is another question, since Americans have resisted 9/11 and Iraq-themed movies, including last year’s largely apolitical “The Hurt Locker,” which grossed only $14 million in the US. Director Doug Liman insisted yesterday that for all its anti-Bush speeches, “this is not an advocacy film . . . [We’re] just trying to tell a story that happened.”
The director adds that he sent Watts, who had given birth shortly before the shoot, to a boot camp for covert agents to toughen up. “It was a fascinating two-day period,” Watts says. “How many people can say they’ve breast-fed while packing a weapon?”
Watts, who is famous for crying in her movies, had to explore a different side of herself for “Fair Game.” “[Plame] simply doesn’t have a breaking point.”
“Who really would have gone there?” she says admiringly of Plame’s decision to testify before Congress. “I know I couldn’t have done it. She maintains an unbelievable level of strength.”