(Naomi) Watts stars as CIA operative Plame in Cannes film

[sabra]

Source: AP

CANNES, France — Naomi Watts has gotten used to playing unstable women. But with the Cannes Film Festival entry "Fair Game," Watts is playing a woman as steady as they come in Valerie Plame, whose secret CIA identity was leaked by the George W. Bush administration.

Directed by Doug Liman ("The Bourne Identity," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"), "Fair Game" chronicles the battle Plame and husband Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) fought in the scandal that called into question the White House's rationale for going to war in Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction.

"She's a real woman, and more of a woman than I've ever played thus far. A lot of the material I've been drawn to in the past been about women in some kind of psychosis, since David Lynch," said Watts, referring to Lynch's 2001 Cannes entry "Mulholland Dr.", a career-making role in which the actress starred in a tale of shifting identities and twisting personalities.

"But this woman transcends her psychosis, and not alone," Watts told reporters Thursday before "Fair Game" premiered. "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. And who really would have gone there? I certainly wouldn't have. I couldn't have done it. So I'm just in awe of her strength and her courage."

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g5eTO5QUb4722DyXPwYWUzEXSLOAD9FQJAK80

[DFW]

1. A surprisingly accurate quote from the article

"I was so captivated by the character of Valerie Prime and the character of Joe Wilson that I almost forgot it was a true story," Liman said. "She's this incredibly private person, and he's this extroverted, larger-than-life character. And they're married. That's real."

That's exactly what they are like. I'll be interested to see how well this is portrayed in a film.
I'd be very surprised to hear that Valerie Plame gave anyone too much to work with.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. Why were GOP BS talking points included in the movie

that were definitely NOT in the book, and that we know are lies?

http://firedoglake.com/2010/05/14/late-night-fair-game-at-cannes-the-hollywood-ization-and-gop-ization-of-the-valerie-plame-story/

<snip>

The (movie) clip (in article link posted above), though, raises questions about just how faithful the adaptation was. As summarized by Greg Mitchell for the Nation:

It finds the couple–Naomi Watts and Sean Penn–in a playground with their kids running about, as Penn angrily confronts his wife over what he has just learned: that she may have written something that got him “sent” to Africa on that famous uranium fact-seeking mission related to Iraq WMD.

In the scene, she denies that she did that as he claims that if this gets out his career is ruined, and asks her to speak out. She suggests that maybe he did not think of his family first when he wrote that New York Times op-ed that drew so much attention…

Curiously, I don’t remember any of those moments being recounted in either Valerie or Joseph Wilson’s memoirs (on page 139 of her book, Valerie writes, “at no time did Joe or I ever consider that my cover and work at the CIA would be compromised by the submission of the op-ed“) — but they do happen to be exactly in line with common, if false, Republican talking points during the controversy:

1. Valerie Plame Wilson sent her husband on the trip to Niger.
2. His wife’s role is an embarrassing fact that undermines Joseph Wilson’s credibility.
3. Joseph Wilson more or less invited the outing of his wife by publicly criticizing the Bush administration.

As many people, including Joseph Wilson, noted repeatedly during the past few years, these assumptions are absolute nonsense. Why on earth would Valerie Plame Wilson think it would help her husband’s business to send him on an unpaid trip (except for reimbursing his expenses) to beautiful, scenic the bleak desert of Niger? And how was Joe Wilson’s consulting business somehow dependent on a trip that he didn’t talk about until it was revealed in news reports a year and a half later?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. Whose going to play Turd Blossom? nt

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. The movie is already completed

and Rove wasn't one of the characters :shrug:

Cast list here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0977855/fullcredits

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. Go figure, I just gogled it after posting. There's a Libby but no Turd. WTF?? nt

[Matariki]

6. ""But this woman transcends her psychosis"???

WTF? She's talking about Plame? Saying Plame transcends her *psychosis*!? Huh?

[TEXASYANKEE]

7. Noami Wilson is spot on for this role.

But Penn as Joe Wilson? Nope, I don't see it. Wilson has a real flair about him, real charisma -- I just don't see that in Penn.