If you looked at her, Valerie Plame(Naomi Watts) probably seems like an average everyday housewife. A pair of kids, a loving but brash husband in former ambassador Joe Wilson(Sean Penn), she appears to have it all. Where he's a bit of a braggart, Valerie is calm and reserved. Nobody in her neighborhood could have possibly suspected she was a counter-proliferation operative for the CIA. That's a fancy way of calling her a spy. With the Bush Administration sniffing around every corner for a reason to invade Iraq, the CIA asks Valerie if her husband would go on a fact finding expedition to the war torn country. His job: discover the truth about weapons of mass destruction. At their request, Joe agrees. His finding that Iraq has no WMD don't exactly give the administration a sigh of relief. Instead, the President presses on with the war scenario during his State of the Union address, completely ignoring Joe's opinion.
Not being a guy given to being spit on, Joe launches a crushing attack on the administration in a series of op-ed colums in the New York Times. The administration, pretty much represented in the film only by Scooter Libby, can't be seen trashing two American citizens. The best way to get revenge is to trash Joe's reputation, and the best way to accomplish that was to reveal his wife as an undercover agent. When journalist Robert Novak(basically a political stooge) leaked details of her CIA employment into the newspapers, the firestorm quickly consumed her once promising career. All her past cases, gone. All her contacts. Gone. Her cover blown, not only could her life be in danger but that of every person she's ever worked with. A spy who can't work, she was run out of the CIA on a rail.
So how does one fight the White House? Valerie isn't quick to do so, choosing instead to hope the whole thing blows over. It's a decision that rubs Joe raw, and he takes every opportunity speak about what happened to every press outlet he can find. To him, the twisting of his intelligence is a slap in the face. The personal repercussions far outweigh the professional ones. Their friends feel betrayed, and the Wilsons are the subject of death threats and are black listed from getting work. With so much swirling around them, a personality clash between Joe and Valerie erupts, one that threatens to destroy them both if it's not fixed.
Just because the Valerie Plame scandal was rooted in politics doesn't make this a political movie. Director Doug Liman wisely keeps his distance from passing judgements. The Bush administration are basically boogeymen lurking in the shadows, but we never actually see them making their destructive choices. We just see the impact of those choices on Joe and Valerie's marriage. She basically blames Joe for starting the entire affair. He, naturally, vehemently opposes this notion. I couldn't think of a more appropriate actress to capture Valerie Plame's beauty and intellect, while Sean Penn corals Joe Wilson's battered bravado and makes it his own. Penn and Watts make an unbeatable combination, teaming up again for the first time since 21 Grams
. Liman uses some of the same grounded techniques he utilized in the equally political The Bourne Identity
.If you're like me and followed the scandal with fascination then reliving these events again will no doubt have you clenching your fists in anger and wishing there was more definite justice handed out. But even if you have no interest in the story of corrupt politicians and shadowy government figures, there's enough here to make for a compelling thriller.
