Fair Game

I felt pretty much the same at the end of this film as with the last one I reviewed (Inside Job), discouraged and chilled by the situation in the US. And as with that previous film, I pretty much knew the story of this one, as will anyone who was paying attention to the news during the time when Valerie Plame was outed as a CIA agent. But there were some insights and details that were new to me. As it's based on books by both Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson, her husband and equally part of the whole situation, of course it's from their perspective. And that perspective, laid out in the film, is that the White House had received many reports, both written and verbal, saying there was no evidence either that Niger was shipping uranium to Iraq, or that Iraq had any WMDs, and yet Bush and others went ahead and announced exactly the opposite and, as we all know, went to war based on supposed intelligence confirming it. The film was very well done and well acted, especially by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in the two main roles. Despite the fact that we basically know the story, it still kept my attention throughout and had the feeling of a thriller. The personal side of their lives was also revealed more than it was in the news, showing Valerie Plame's life and work before she was outed, and how their marriage was strained almost to the breaking point afterward.

Inside Job

Toward the end of Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, about global warming, he sounded fairly hopeful and optimistic as he outlined some things that could be done, in his mind, fairly easily to help that situation. Inside Job, about the recent and still ongoing worldwide economic crisis, isn't like that. So if you don't want to be even more discouraged and depressed than you may already be about unemployment, Wall Street, bankers, investment bankers, mortgage brokers, etc., don't go see this film. However, it's an excellently made documentary, describing and explaining many familiar and not so familiar things about how we got here and where we are now, in a clear and concise manner. And although it has many "talking heads", it's also visually interesting in many parts. Those talking heads, by the way, utter some truly jaw-dropping statements reminiscent of the tobacco industry executives swearing under oath that nicotine isn't addictive. Many of the key players, however, not surprisingly didn't agree to be interviewed for the film. I won't spell out any more specifics, except to say that if this film is accurate, it looks like we haven't gone through the last worldwide crisis that could cause a complete economic meltdown.