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." One of 19 movies competing for the festival's main prize, "Fair Game" arguably is the most politically charged film to play in the Cannes main competition since Michael Moore's war-on-terror documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the top award in 2004. Beginning in the early days of the US war on terror after the Sept. 11 attacks, "Fair Game" traces Plame's background as a covert operative, taking on assumed identities to uncover details about possible weapons programs in Iraq and elsewhere. After the Bush administration cites a supposed uranium deal involving Iraq, Joe Wilson writes a piece in The New York Times disputing the information, noting how he was dispatched by the US government to Niger in west Africa to investigate the case but found no evidence of a uranium sale. Soon after, Plame's CIA cover was leaked to the news media. She says her outing came in retaliation for her husband's Times piece. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, then Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the Plame investigation. President George W. Bush commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence. In "Fair Game," Watts' Plame and Penn's Wilson face death threats against their family, hostile criticism from the government and accusations of betraying their country. Wilson, a former US ambassador, fights back in a media campaign against the White House, while Plame refuses to respond publicly to the scandal, which strains their marriage to the breaking point. "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." The film is based on the couple's memoirs — Plame's "Fair Game" and Wilson's "The Politics of Truth." Plame also appeared in the Cannes film "Countdown to Zero," director Lucy Walker's documentary about the continuing danger of nuclear arms. A weapons-proliferation specialist, Plame was among those interviewed about the possibility of terrorist or accidental nuclear detonations. Though Plame and Wilson were at Cannes for the "Fair Game" premiere, they were not participating in the film's publicity, including a festival press conference. "She and Joe are both here and are very supportive of the movie. Obviously, part of the story is that they wanted, especially Joe wanted, this story to be told," Liman said. "But this is a film festival, and we were told that in the history of Cannes, they wouldn't normally bring the people on whom the film was based to the press conference. That is the procedure for Cannes."
