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All Movie Guide:
As a couple whose marriage has been strained to the
breaking point, Penn and Watts display a chemistry that
makes us feel the gravity of their situation, and Sam
Shepard makes a lasting impression as Valerie's
father in a brief but telling scene that exposes her
true character.
Michael Janusonis, Providence
Journal:
Penn can be an explosive screen presence and the
friction he brings in later scenes with Watts create
real fire. On the other hand, a scene in which Sam
Shepard, as Plame’s father, tries to put things into
perspective for her is played with great tenderness and
understanding.
Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters:
Late in "Fair Game", Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) faces a
daunting set of crises. She’s lost her job, her friends
feel betrayed, and she’s fighting with her husband, Joe
Wilson (Sean Penn). And so she does what so many women
in such situations in the movies do: she goes home, that
is, to her parents’. Here, predictably, her mother Diane
(Polly Holliday) looks after her two young
grandchildren, while Valerie’s father follows her into
the backyard. They try not to look at each other as she
announces, “I think my marriage is over, dad.”
Here it’s enormously helpful that her dad is played by
Sam Shepard, because anyone else uttering his
lines would be hard-pressed to seem convincing. But when
he says he’s spent 25 years in the Air Force, well, you
kind of believe him, since he’s been Chuck Yeager, and
when he complains that what the Bush administration has
done—to her family and the U.S. and Iraq too—“was wrong,
Val, it’s just plain wrong,” you believe that too. And
so she resolves not to be angry at Joe anymore, but
instead to join his fight against the administration, as
unwinnable as it may seem. (This fictionalized film is
now part of that fight, and the real life Plame and
Wilson have been key figures in its promotion.)
While this plot turn is forgone, as Doug Liman’s movie
is based on the real life story of administration’s
efforts to quash Joe Wilson’s allegation that it lied
about Saddam’s weapons program, it has a few
ramifications for Fair Game. For one thing, it means
that Shepard’s work is done here, his remarkably
weathered face and heroic bearing cast as a receding
memory—of a time when the U.S. government’s conniving
was less visible and fatuous. In Shepard’s absence, it’s
Penn’s Wilson who embodies—in Valerie’s eyes, and so
yours—a resilient and admirable faith that there is a
difference between right and wrong, that ideology
doesn’t trump morality.
Alex Carlson, Film Misery:
Watts and Penn are fantastic in two very different
leading turns. Penn’s Wilson exists at more varying
emotional extremes as his enormous ego leads him to wear
his emotions on his sleeve. Watts is more reserved and
restrained in one of her better performances that acts
as a perfect balance to Penn. There is also a fantastic
supporting turn from the legendary Sam Shepard as
Plame’s broken, advice giving father.
Laurie Curtis, Tonight at the
Movies:
Sean Penn delivers a performance that we have come to
expect from him... But it is Naomi Watts performance as
Valerie that makes the film work. She is believable as
both a tough- as-nails CIA operative, as well as a
loving mother and wife. Sam Shepard plays
Valerie’s father Sam and I have to say, once again, that
I am amazed at the impact that Shepard can have on an
audience with such limited time on screen. His
characters part is small, but plays a pivotal role in
the outcome of the film.
Sally Kline, Washington Examiner:
It is good to see the great Sam Shepard on screen
again, as Plame's father.
Contact Music:
Liman's filmmaking has an urgent, raw quality from
the start, with realistic rough edges and an alert eye
for detail. The best scenes are off-handed ones like a
strained dinner party. But things are continually
cranked up to generate suspense or melodrama where it
isn't really needed. Much more effective is Shepard,
as Valerie's dad, quietly consoling her: "What they did
was wrong. Just plain wrong."
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