She spies, he preaches in 'Fair Game'

The term political football was invented to describe people like Valerie Plame, the CIA operative whose cover was blown by Bush officials in 2003, seemingly in retaliation for an op-ed written by her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, that questioned the administration's justification for invading Iraq. The main reason the Wilsons made headlines was because liberals and conservatives alike used them to score points in the game of public opinion.

"Fair Game," a movie based on Plame's memoir (and Wilson's book, "The Politics of Truth"), wants to tell a lesser-known story, that of the toll taken on two people caught up in events mostly beyond their control. Played by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, the Wilsons are portrayed as a couple who lived close to the inner workings of government but still felt powerless when the machine turned against them.

Director Doug Liman ("The Bourne Identity") does a decent job of livening up the wonky details (Niger, yellowcake) with spy-flick conventions. The scenes of Plame's Middle East adventures feel satisfyingly tense but not overblown; mostly they exist to build a case that her being outed affected lives other than her own.

But "Fair Game" also is unabashedly and disappointingly one-sided. Bush's henchmen are cartoons: The rotund Karl Rove (Adam LeFevre) looks like a villainous Weeble, while Scooter Libby (David Andrews) resembles a flinty-eyed Gen. Zod telling Superman to kneel. What's more, Penn slowly takes over the movie, turning Wilson into a mouthpiece for ideals of freedom and dissension. Those are admirable notions, but the more Wilson preaches, the less nuanced the film becomes. Talk about political football - in the end, "Fair Game" is right there on the gridiron.