Because one movie about Plamegate wasn't enough -- raise your hand if you saw Nothing but the Truth -- here comes the trailer for Fair Game, better known around these parts as Doug Liman's self-professed "really great movie." Um, about that: maybe it just needs a better trailer?
Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts stars as Valerie Plame, the covert CIA spy who was outed by the Bush Administration and -- hey, you know what, if you don't remember this story, do a Google search. Perhaps that's the biggest problem with Fair Game -- the beats in the trailer occurred so recently that they lack any spark, any bite, any push to run to a theater. (For what it's worth, when Movieline's David Bourgeois saw the film at Cannes, this was one his main complaints as well.)
It isn't a total disaster -- Watts seems perfectly suited to play the detached and withholding Plame; Sean Penn channels Joe Wilson's sense of intellectual entitlement -- but by the time Watts-as-Plame says, "You can't break me. (Pause for dramatic music cue) I don't have a breaking point," all hope seems lost. Jeff Wells points out that Summit Entertainment should fix this trailer and fast. He's got a point.
VERDICT: Pass.