Fair Game (2010) (Blu-ray)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Audio Commentary
Rating
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	107:33
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Doug Liman
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Naomi Watts Sonya Davison Vanessa Chong Anand Tiwari Stephanie Chai Michael Kelly Sean Penn
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$44.95	Music	John Powell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     The Valerie Plame-Wilson affair is one of the more interesting bits of recent American history. Plame-Wilson was outed as a covert CIA agent, along with the front company she operated behind, by senior members of the Bush administration as petty revenge for a series of op-ed articles written by her husband, Joseph C. Wilson, alleging misuse of data he had provided in justifying the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Joe Wilson, a former diplomat to Africa, had been engaged by the CIA to go on a fact finding mission to Niger to assess whether the country was likely to have been exporting large quantities of yellowcake uranium to Iraq. Despite reporting a fairly clear "no", Wilson's report was subject to a number of deliberate misrepresentations by White House advisors and used as supporting documentation for the suspicion of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction. The disclosure of Valerie Plame-Wilson's CIA involvement led to criminal investigations into several White House staff, a civil suit, and ultimately the indictment of the Vice President's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, who many (and certainly this film) considered to be a scapegoat to cover far wider-reaching involvement.

     Fair Game dramatizes the lead-up and fallout over the affair as seen from the Wilsons’ point of view, and at various stages plays as either an espionage drama or a political thriller. The film could almost be chopped in half to separate the two aspects. The same chop would separate what works from what doesn't. The espionage drama half, ostensibly the first half of the film, is excellent. It balances family drama, real-life espionage and investigation angles perfectly and constructs well rounded, engaging characters. The political thriller half is a jumble. The post-leak story is hurriedly told and many of the players, particularly the political ones, are given no characterisation and little introduction. Anyone unfamiliar with the US political players of the time will get easily lost at times. The strain the affair has on the Wilsons’ marriage manages to be both undercooked and overdone. The wrap up, come burning, of Plame-Wilson and her field associates by the CIA, which is intertwined with the political mish-mash second half, is handled quite well however. No prizes for guessing where director Doug Liman’s, best remembered for bringing Jason Bourne to the big screen, strengths lie.

     Sean Penn and Naomi Watts each put in solid performances as the Wilsons, although Penn overplays the emo card in the second half albeit equally thanks to the clumsy plotting of the latter part of the film as to him actually overdoing it. Though clearly told from the Wilsons’ perspective and against the war, Fair Game does a good job of justifying its political viewpoint. Perhaps it waves the "truth, justice and the American way" banner a little too much, but taken with a grain of salt it makes for good viewing.

Video

     The film is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio in 1080p.

     The video looks decent, though certainly a few notches down from reference standard. The image is reasonably sharp, but with mild edge enhancement and grain noticeable throughout. The black depth and shadow detail are good. The colours are stylishly desaturated slightly and quite consistent throughout. There is no sign of any film artefacts in the transfer or any compression artefacts in the video.

     The film features optional subtitles for the hearing impaired.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The film features a single English 5.1 DTS HD-MA track.

     The audio is quite problematic throughout. The audio is frequently tinny, has a high frequency ringing to it and sounds as though the surround channels may have been reversed. This is enough of an issue that the disc was tried on a variety of equipment (ranging form low to high end, including gear from Sony, Pioneer, Yamaha, Onkyo and Soniq) to ensure it was not a specific equipment compatibility fault. It isn't.

     The dialogue is reasonable discernable throughout, and generally at a good level in the mix, however it can't escape the persistent mixing issue and frequently is the most affected part of the score. The surrounds are used reasonably frequently, though subject to the aforementioned issue. The subwoofer gets a reasonable workout in the mix.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Audio Commentary with the Wilsons

     Valerie Plame-Wilson and Joseph C. Wilson provide a commentary to the film about their 15 minutes in the spotlight. Although it sounds fascinating, it could hardly be further from it. The commentary is ultimately killed by long periods of dead air, which are frequent and long enough to make it a struggle to pay any attention through. When the pair does speak there is little of real substance said, mostly hollow praise for the cast and filmmakers or limp-wristed assurances of how accurate the film is, albeit heavily dramatised. Skip it.

    The US Region A edition is identical to the Australian Region B edition.

     Though undeniably a mixed bag there is an excellent real-life political espionage thriller buried in Fair Game. It is rather ironic that the historical aspect which made the story worth telling in the first place, the political fallout over the affair, is what fails the film.

     The video is good. The audio is flawed. The lone extra is a disappointment

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall