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Real-Life Spy Valerie Plame Is 'Fair Game' For New Movie

The world first heard the name Valerie Plame in 2003. Her identity as a CIA officer was leaked by Bush administration officials when she was mentioned by name in an article by syndicated columnist Robert Novak. Her exposure as an undercover operative was seen as an attempt to discredit Plame's husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson. Now a new movie about the controversy and the tensions placed on the Wilson's marriage is about to open nationwide. Host Liane Hansen speaks to director Doug Liman about the film, Fair Game, starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.

Noomi Rapace: Finding Lisbeth, And Letting Her Go

Strangely captivating: The volatile Lisbeth Salander has fascinated readers worldwide. For Noomi Rapace, the actress who turned her into a screen icon, she was particularly hard to let go of. Knut Koivisto hide caption

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Knut Koivisto

Movie Interviews

Noomi Rapace: Finding Lisbeth, And Letting Her Go

The actress who has played Stieg Larsson's punk-hacker heroine in a trilogy of thriller films tells NPR's Melissa Block that it was strangely easy to identify with the character -- and harder than she expected to get Lisbeth out of her head.

Film Chronicles Artist's Work From Rio Dump

In the documentary Waste Land, director Lucy Walker chronicles the creation of a work of art by Vik Muniz made with objects from a landfill in Rio de Janeiro. The garbage dump receives more tons of trash every day than any other dump in the world. It serves Rio de Janeiro and its closest suburb -- the richest and the poorest trash mixes in the same dump. A Brazilian now based in Brooklyn, Muniz works with some of the 3,000 pickers who make their living scavenging at the dump.

M. 'Bellamy,' Inspecting Humanity's Darkest Hearts

Busman's Honeymoon: Police detective Paul Bellamy (Gerard Depardieu) has been convinced by his wife, Francoise (Marie Bunel), to take his first vacation in years. But an unruly half-brother and a spiraling local mystery lure Bellamy away from his R&R and into a web of betrayal and murder. Moune Jamet/IFC Films hide caption

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Moune Jamet/IFC Films

Review

Movie Reviews

M. 'Bellamy,' Inspecting Humanity's Darkest Hearts

French director Claude Chabrol blurs the lines between crime fighter and perpetrator, hero and anti-hero, as the titular detective's choices grow even more dubious than those of the film's criminals. (Recommended)

A Melancholy 'Welcome' For A Teen In Need

Father Figure: On a business trip, Doug Riley (James Gandolfini) meets wayward teen Mallory (Kristen Stewart) and takes her under his wing, partly to fill the void his own daughter's death has left in his life. Skip Bolen/Patti Perret hide caption

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Skip Bolen/Patti Perret

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Movie Reviews

A Melancholy 'Welcome' For A Teen In Need

A deliberately paced study of a grieving couple in a crumbling marriage, Welcome to the Rileys builds slowly to a believable emotional complexity as the pair brings a troubled teenager into their life. James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo and Kristen Stewart star.

'Shake Hands,' Struggle On: A Genocide Revisited

Tough Call: Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, (Roy Dupuis, left) and Maj. Brent Beardsley (James Gallanders) struggle to protect innocent lives and negotiate peace during Rwanda's 1994 genocide, striving all the while to maintain the neutrality required of U.N. peacekeepers. Regent Releasing hide caption

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Regent Releasing

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Movie Reviews

'Shake Hands,' Struggle On: A Genocide Revisited

Based on a memoir by Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, Roger Spottiswoode's film follows the peacekeeper's experience of the 1994 Rwanda genocide. It's a powerful story, told with appropriate reticence and centered on a charismatic performance by Roy Dupuis.

Along A Dangerous Border, 'Monsters' Lurk

A Plan Problematic: Scoot McNairy stars as Andrew Kaulder, a photographer who must find his way through a quarantined zone inhabited by squidlike extraterrestrials to get out of Mexico and home to the U.S. Magnet Releasing/Magnolia Pictures hide caption

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Magnet Releasing/Magnolia Pictures

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Movie Reviews

Along A Dangerous Border, 'Monsters' Lurk

Driven by a social metaphor that makes District Nine's look veiled, Monsters is set in an E.T.-infested zone between the U.S. and Mexico, with our heroes braving low-budget but persuasively designed space monsters to get back to the good old U.S. of A..

'Hornet's Nest': The Girl With The Dragging Plot

Together at last: In the last installment of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist, left) and cyber-avenger Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) barely share any screen time. Music Box Films hide caption

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Music Box Films

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Movie Reviews

'Hornet's Nest': The Girl With The Dragging Plot

Fresh Air

The third installment of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy focuses once again on the corruption-fighting duo of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and cyber-avenger Lisbeth Salander. But as critic David Edelstein notes, an epic devotion to detail makes the movie seem like "an interminable footnote." (Note: Spoilers galore.)

A Man Of 'Strange Powers,' Intimately Observed

Musically Minded: Strange Powers focuses on Stephin Merritt, the main singer and songwriter of the Magnetic Fields, a genre-blurring indie-rock band that grew to prominence in the '90s. Gail O'Hara/Variance Films hide caption

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Gail O'Hara/Variance Films

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Movie Reviews

A Man Of 'Strange Powers,' Intimately Observed

An engaging look at the sometimes-maligned but singularly talented songwriter Stephin Merritt, this documentary was 10 years in the making. The film gives fans of the Magnetic Fields, a band known for exploring many a musical genre, a wealth of behind-the-scene details.