“Fair Game” is one of those very-recent history movies, based very tightly on a true story. It’s actually two stories evenly balanced into one: that of Ambassador Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) and his wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts). These two distinguished actors knock their respective roles out of the park. The historical anecdote is, of course, the lie that started a war. The lie that Saddam and Iraq had a nuclear program, was enriching uranium and had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The “proof” was that the country of Niger had been providing the materials — something Joe Wilson disproved on a fact-finding mission. In retaliation for Wilson not going along with the “program,” Valerie’s identity was revealed to all the world by none other than the White House and U.S. government. Since the start of the Second Gulf War took place almost 10 years ago, this film can be very instructive for younger people who did not live through these events, so fresh in older minds. In fact, there is a movement in education to use these types of films in history classes — while simultaneously checking the films for accuracy and comparing them with reality. Many actual TV newscasts of President Bush and others are heavily interwoven throughout the film. Even the mood of the country is recreated: the fear and panic right after 9/11, the patriotism, the accusations of disloyalty to America and the troops if one was against going to war, the fact that 50 percent of Americans thought Saddam had attacked the Twin Towers (making the connection as they heard the war drums rattling every day in the media), the “shock and awe” as the bombing of Baghdad began. This incident was a pretty clear-cut one. Other news stories can tend to get murky and we wind up with what one character says in denial and defeat: “Who knows what really happened?” Much of the film centers on what the stress of it all did to Joe and Valerie’s marriage, their decision to fight for their reputations, their love of country, their love of truth. One does have to ask, however, about the truthfulness of being a spy. The filmmakers must have anticipated this, because at one point, Valerie is asked how she can look people in the face and lie, and she responds: “Know why you’re lying, and never forget the truth.” Both Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame have written books about their experiences.