Fair Game
User Score
7.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 60 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 46 out of 60
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 60
  3. Negative: 5 out of 60

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  1. Brooklyn
    Dec 9, 2010
    10
    Most know the story, or should, but it needed to be re-told. Can't remember the last time I left a theater more moved by a film, although in this case I was shaking in anger. It's a wonder that such a corrupt administration was elected . . . twice, but I guess people who can deny global warning, who imagine that tax cuts are constant with controlling budget deficits and that breaks for the wealthiest 1% somehow help the economy can similarly rationalize the outing of a true patriot who dedicated her life to serve her country in dangerous and important work.… Expand
  2. 10sne1
    Jun 9, 2011
    10
    This is a geopolitical thriller. It would be widely entertaining were it not for the fact that it is based on real events in very recent global history in which a corrupt White House coddled officials who were guilty of treason in outing a CIA official, leaving valuable American assets around the world twisting in the wind, and then getting the media to Blame the Victim by painting Plame as a low-level insignificant paper pusher and not the high-level agent she actually was. Yes, of course that's a biased statement. But no one comes to this film unbiased. Ideologies dictate how one will respond to this powerful denoument of sleaze and connivance at the highest levels of power. If you like Bush-Cheaney you hate this vile besmirching of their unimpeachable character. Of course you do. I fear the degree to which voting Americans are handing over their birthright to the loudest shouter or the richest contributor. As a line in the film reminds us, Benjamin Franklin replied to a woman that "I have given you a republic, madam. Now it's your job to keep it." We are in danger of losing it. And oh, by the way, Naomi Watts embodies Valerie Plame so convincingly that you have to blink twice at the end to realize you're watching Plame testifying before the congressional committee, not Watts playing Plame.… Expand
  3. gpauwen
    Aug 21, 2011
    10
    I really liked this movie. Great story, great acting, a very wise lesson, and a simple one: don't give up ! Sean Penn is pretty much awesome in every movie he is in, Naomi Watts was great, too !
  4. movieboy
    Jan 29, 2011
    9
    It would seem that one's response to this excellent film is colored by political affiliation. I thought it was a superbly made political drama that highlighted one aspect of the Bush/Cheney administrations b.s. that got us into Iraq. As to one user's reviewer complaining "this is fiction, not factual," based on Judith Miller's article in the Wall Street Journal, big deal. 1. she's bummed because she's not featured in the film, and 2. it's the right wing Journal, what do you expect. So some of the "facts" were altered, oh wow. That does not in anyway dismiss the primary issue that the Niger/Iraq uranium claim was not true, and Plame was outed because her husband tried to show Bush lied. Both Watts and Sean Penn are terrific in the film. One of the best of 2010. Essential viewing.… Expand
  5. emkadv
    Dec 9, 2010
    9
    Unless you still believe that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (something even G. W. Bush admits turned out to be untrue), you should like this movie. It is a fascinating portrayal of the difficulties of fighting a bureaucracy when all you have on your side are the facts.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
69 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 35
  3. Negative: 0 out of 35
  1. Empire
    Reviewed by: Kim Newman
    Mar 5, 2011
    60
    In the filmography of liberal-skewing, Bush-era true stories, this is a measured, persuasive item.
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  2. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    Nov 24, 2010
    75
    The result is a movie that is about as riveting as -- well, as your average Robert Novak column.
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  3. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    Nov 19, 2010
    88
    For a nation at war with its own values, Fair Game is a compelling, pertinent and scrupulously true political thriller in the honorable tradition of "All the President's Men."
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