I am in love with Cindy Crawford. In common, I would have thought, with just about every heterosexual male old enough to remember the Golden Age of the Supermodel in the nineties. It's not just that Cindy is beautiful- although she must count as one of the loveliest women of her generation- but also that she possesses a grace and dignity which set her apart from certain other supermodels who are notable less for their modelling work than for their tempestuous sex lives, for their temper tantrums and for their addiction to alcohol, cocaine and blood diamonds. No names mentioned.
Blessed with the looks of a Hollywood goddess, Cindy evidently thought she would try to become one. She was not the only supermodel to have had this idea in the mid-nineties; Elle Macpherson and Naomi Campbell also tried their hand at acting around the same time. They, however, contented themselves with supporting roles (such as Elle's appearance as Blanche Ingram in Zeffirelli's version of "Jane Eyre"), whereas in "Fair Game" Cindy finds herself cast in a leading role. She stars as Kate McQuean, a Florida lawyer who inadvertently falls foul of the Russian mafia. As Kate has a civil law practice concentrating on divorce and no involvement with criminal law enforcement, exactly what she has done to upset them would take too long to explain here; suffice it to say that they want her dead. She is therefore forced to go on the run with Max Kirkpatrick, the police officer charged with protecting her.
Contrary to a widely held belief, beauty alone is not enough to make you a film star. At any given time there must be hundreds, if not thousands, of aspiring young wannabes in Hollywood, nearly all of them strikingly attractive. The few who make it to the top must, therefore, have something more than their beauty to set them apart from their less successful rivals, and that something is normally a modicum of real talent. (Although in a few cases an influential or well-connected husband or boyfriend will suffice, thus accounting for the fact that some attractive but genuinely talentless actresses have enjoyed quite lengthy careers at the top. Again, no names mentioned).
Much as I love Cindy, I have to admit that genuine talent is something she lacks, at least as far as acting is concerned. One critic said of this film that "One could scavenge the thesaurus to find synonyms for 'awkward' to describe Crawford's performance," although actually "awkward" would be perhaps a milder criticism than many people would use. The lovely Cindy, I'm afraid, spends the entire film looking as though she has no idea what she is doing. She was nominated for a Worst Actress Razzie, but lost out to Elizabeth Berkeley for her role in "Showgirls". (Actually, whatever one might think about the merits of Paul Verhoeven's film, Berkeley's performance is a lot more animated and lively than Crawford's).
One cannot, however, place the blame for the failure of this film on Cindy alone, or even on the standards of acting alone. (William Baldwin is not as wooden as his co-star, but even so he still, on this evidence, has a lot to do before he can live down the accusation that he is not even the best actor in his family). The film was made in 1995, several years after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, but Hollywood was still pursuing its own private cold war against all things Russian.
The old cliché of Russians as villainous communists was simply replaced by a new cliché of Russians as villainous fascists or villainous gangsters; the main baddie here is a former Colonel in the KGB. (See also "Crimson Tide", "GoldenEye", "The Peacemaker", "Air Force One", etc.) This new cliché did not end with the nineties. By chance "Fair Game" was shown on British television on the same evening as "Salt", made as recently as 2010. Although "Salt" is a better film than "Fair Game", it still relies on the sort of Russophobic prejudices which should have come down with the Berlin Wall nearly a quarter of a century ago. Salt, however, does have a decent plot- indeed, a rather ingenious one- something which "Fair Game" totally lacks. What storyline it possesses is little more than an excuse for repeated scenes of gunfire, explosions, and Kate and Max running for their lives pursued by the baddies, all leading up to a totally predictable ending. It is hardly surprising that Cindy did not go on to a major film career. 3/10
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