On July 14th, 2003, the Bush administration, in an effort to bolster waning public support for the war in Iraq, leaked the name of a CIA operative to The Washington Post to discredit her husband’s criticism of the conflict. Valerie Plame Wilson, wife, mother, spy. The lead up and escalation of this disclosure is examined in this, the latest thriller to join the sub-genre of Iraqi war films currently dominating political cinema, and is directed by The Bourne Identity’s Doug Liman. It stars Naomi Watts as Plame, and Sean Penn as her former-ambassador husband Joseph C. Wilson, whose vitriolic outcries in op-ed articles apparently pushed his wife into the political crosshairs and public spotlight.
The story is, at first, tightly constructed, spending the first half of its running time building up Valerie’s credibility as a CIA agent, sometimes working, sometimes not. Firstly, she’s flitting around Kuala Lumpur, turning hostiles into defecting assets. Then she’s the penetrating analyst, probing deep into the murky world of aluminium tubes and the lynchpin of the CIA’s official position denying an alleged sale of yellowcake uranium to dodgy Iraqi types. Then she’s training immigrants to return home and dish the dirt on Saddam’s strategies. But don’t worry, there’s still time for her to make it home and get that soufflé to rise for a dinner party where the guests’ discussion debriefs the audience of the technical espionage chatter through broad and occasionally distasteful descriptions of the Middle East. All in a day’s work for Val and America, fuck yeah.
