As history — and Hollywood — has proven, the United States government does not need to paint a bull’s-eye on your back to make you a target. And, as “Fair Game” proves, it doesn’t need a weapon to take you down. “Fair Game”

Naomi Watts, Sean Penn

Directed by Doug Liman

Summit Entertainment

B

As history — and Hollywood — has proven, the United States government does not need to paint a bull’s-eye on your back to make you a target. And, as “Fair Game” proves, it doesn’t need a weapon to take you down.

“Fair Game,” based on a true story, tells the tale behind the Valerie Plame affair that occurred in 2003 when a newspaper published the name of a covert C.I.A. agent after her husband railed against the U.S. decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

Naomi Watts plays Valerie Plame, a secret agent and mother who must keep her real identity a secret from her friends who attend her dinner parties. At work, she has to deal with post-Sept. 11 Iraq, and the chance that Saddam Hussein might have weapons of mass destruction. This uncertainty is particularly interesting to look at nine years later.

Power politics come into play when the White House gets involved. In the film, the Bush Administration is portrayed as desperate as they seek reasons to invade Iraq.

One such claim is that Plame’s husband, Joe Wilson (Sean Penn), saw Niger sell Iraq yellowcake, a form of uranium ore that can be used to create the uranium used in nuclear weapons.

In the 2003 State of the Union address the evidence of a transaction between Niger and Iraq was used as justification for the invasion of Iraq.

It was this evidence that Wilson refuted and began to speak publicly about. In retaliation, the government leaked his wife’s identity to the press.

“Fair Game,” also based on Plame’s memoir, “Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House,” is sometimes unsure of what it wants to be. It dabbles in the political thriller genre while also presenting itself as a biopic trying to stick to the facts instead of an outright dramatization.

“Fair Game” would not work if it starred poorer actors. But Watts’ and Penn’s taut emotions and heart wrenching breakdowns are moving and force the viewer to ask himself what the role of the government should really be.

This movie additionally provides an interesting look at the American psyche after Sept. 11 and forces the audience to wonder if the nation really behaved as the film suggests.