In the Loop

Greetings again from the darkness. A spin-off of the British series The Thick of it, this film comes across as an odd mixture of Dr Strangelove, Spinal Tap, The Office ... think Christopher Guest remakes The West Wing. There are some incredibly funny lines and therein lies the films only problem.

What prevents the film from being truly great is that the comedy lines are so well written (and acted) that the story itself is shoved aside. Kind of a shame because I love the basis for the story. Combining the politics of both the U.S. and England and weaving their process and decision making into one film ... and then backdropping the decision on whether to go to war, is ingenious and fascinating. But as I said, the story takes a real backseat and many viewers will pay scant attention to the entire war theme. Watching politicians negotiate for power and struggle with quotable (yet meaningless) phrases is a hoot. And the posturing is not limited to the power brokers, as we see their assistants are playing the same game ... just with less at stake.

Ultimately the film works as an aggressive, loud, foul mouthed quote fest and not so much as the political editorial it could/should have been. Peter Capaldi dominates the film as the spin doctor who uses intimidation to mask his schemes. Tom Hollander would have been the soul of the film, if it were better developed as a story. All will recognize him from Pirates of Caribbean. James Gandolfini, Mimi Kennedy, David Rasche and James Gandolfini provide the U.S. contingency that are deflatingly realistic and make us so "proud". Don't miss a funny turn by the great Steve Coogan as the poor citizen who just wants his mum's retaining wall repaired so it doesn't crush her in the greenhouse. While certainly not woven seamlessly into the film, it does provide a shot of realism for what Hollander's character would face.

Lastly, it is very nice to see Anna Chlumsky back on screen. An immediate child star in My Girl ... remember her kiss with Maculey Culkin? Ms. Chlumsky is now a mature presence and should definitely be a consistent actress for years to come.

There is something about British comedy that resonates with me. I don't know if it is because we in the States experience so little of it, or maybe because Hollywood rapes and pillages the material for their own water-downed versions, but the humor just seems fresh, uncensored, and hilarious. When I first came across the new political black comedy In the Loop, I will admit to being less than interested. The marketing materials were using the whole Obama silkscreen poster look and I really wasn't interested in a movie about how the US and Britain decided to go into the Middle East. But then the buzz started. The realization that the film was shot with a penchant for improv, a desire to entertain rather than teach, and a cast of characters looking as though they are in a Christopher Guest movie, soon turned that preconception around. This is a fantastic film that never lets up on the laughs or one-liners. I just hope people go into it knowing that this isn't how it actually happened … but then who knows? Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.

The back and forth dialogue is so quick that I couldn't believe my eyes when I read a quote from the director about it all being about 80-85% scripted. He says that he gave the actors leeway to break course and even do takes without scripts at all, but when culling everything together, most of what stuck actually maintained the verbiage laid out by its five screenwriters. Each of these men, including director Armando Iannucci, has been working with British television and all have collaborated on the show "The Thick of It". I will say now, if I get a chance to check it out, I most certainly will. Political satire is not necessarily my favorite thing in the world—I'll watch the odd "Daily Show" episode—but after viewing this laugh-riot, checking out a spoof on the British political system, of which I know very little, could be a ton of fun. Heck, just the inclusion of Peter Capaldi will get me to stop surfing when I reach the BBC. This guy steals the show without question.

Capaldi plays Malcolm Turner, a Brit on the frontline of politics as an aide to the Prime Minister, spinning everything and anything to save face. With no time to spare on his running across the Atlantic to put out fires wherever his compatriots start them, you will have to forgive his abrasive, sarcastic, and just plain mean demeanor. The idea of war is being bandied about on talk shows, behind closed-door governmental meetings, and all over the media machine, and it is up to him to keep a lid on it by walking the party line, neither stating a fight is inevitable or unforeseeable—two terms that the buffoon who is British Secretary of State for International Development Simon Foster, played beautifully by the ever capable Tom Hollander, loves to utter. Foster just has to open his mouth to cause a stir felt around the world, and each time, of course, Malcolm Turner is there to chastise and humiliate his stupidity.

The film ultimately revolves around the journey Hollander's Foster takes in trying to enhance exposure for himself. Partaking in talk shows or talking out of turn when enlisted to just be "room meat", some of the Americans begin to see him as someone abroad that shares their sentiment that war is a bad idea. While David Rasche's Linton Barwick—a hardcore proponent of battle, even using a live grenade as a paperweight—forms secret committees to discuss strategies for war, Mimi Kennedy's Karen Clarke and James Gandolfini's Lt. General George Miller are looking for ways to get into that meeting and shut it down. As a result, those two dissenters try to get Foster at every event to awkwardly express his stance of war being unforeseeable, hoping to deter any people on the fence that may be in attendance. So, Malcolm must run back and forth through England and DC spinning things his way and lambasting anyone that gets in his line of fire. Either Foster is too oblivious to care about the verbal assaults thrown his way or he just feels he can blame his Director of Communications Judy, who he makes stay at home while he globe-trots with his new young adviser Toby, (Gina McKee and Chris Addison respectively). Toby and Foster are so similar in their awe of America and lack of experience that their adventures make for good cinema, taking camera phone pics out their limo and speaking about getting hookers for the ride.

In the Loop is expertly acted and, for the most part, I have to credit that to the intelligent script being utilized. Whether the actors are improvising or not, the original text they are sticking to or springboarding from needed to be strong. By using all the jokes and imbecilic actions we associate with politicians, the writers have crafted a plausible, if not entirely idiotic, account of the days leading up to our countries' joint invasion. Documents are leaked, words are twisted, and supposed partners are stabbed in the back. But through it all we have Capaldi doing his best to keep Britain's stance as noncommittal as possible. And, truthfully, the way in which he does it makes for what has to be the funniest role of the year. Every word out of his mouth is acerbic and full of double meaning. With the f-word spewing at will and demeaning name-callings going left and right, make sure your head is clear if British speech sometimes troubles you in the comprehension realm. Understanding his words definitely pays off, keeping what would otherwise be a slightly bloated and meandering plot grounded in comedic excellence.

The Big Questions: Can an adult comedy (i.e one without masturbation, anal sex, and talking genitals) attract people during the summer season? Can director Armando Iannucci, known for BBC series "The Thick of It", adapt the series to the screen in "In the Loop"? Does this war-room satire bring anything new to war-room satires?

Tom Hollander (the last two Pirates of the Caribbean movies) plays British Secretary of State Simon Foster, who in a radio interview says that war with the Middle East is "unforeseeable." The statement is enough to send the Prime Minister's chief adviser Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) into hysterics. The US President and UK Prime Minister are keen on a war and Tucker wants to give it to them. In Washington, Deputy Secretary of State Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy) has learned of a secret War Committee formed by Linton Barwick (David Rasche) and she dispatches her secretary, Liza (Anna Chlumsky, yup, from 1991's "My Girl"), to find out everything she can about it. Clarke and General Miller (James Gandolfini) are against the war and are willing to do anything in their power to stop it, even inviting Simon and his assistant Toby (Chris Addison) to Washington thinking that Simon might be usable. Just Simon is a clueless pawn without the slightest idea what he's doing. Other story strands center around an anti-war paper written by Liza, and an affair she has with Toby.

The foolishness of government war-mongering is sent-up well by this profane and viciously over the top comedy. If you've read the several books about the events leading up to the Iraq War, the constant and disconcerting string of manipulation, deception, back-door tactics, and posturing for political career gain, as well as how they all think of it as a game without consequences, incorporated by these underlings won't shock you too much, but the laughs just might. Shot with a hand-held camera that brings to mind "The Office", these people run around like chickens with their heads chopped off (some of which is very hard to even keep track of) trying to win out over the other side. The fast pacing, profanely clever dialogue, and flying insults are relentless. There are references to CNN being the Cartoon News Network, kids just out of college making big White House decisions, a sexual encounter for world peace, and a funny attack on a fax machine. In addition to turning profanity into a bodily function, characters (usually) shout pop culture references (John and Yoko, Kid from Eraserhead), and various other more derogatory names at each other. It's a tad excessive at times, but funny.

Peter Capaldi is the key stand-out in the cast, being the most over-the-top of them all. His obscene and excessively profane performance as the Prime Minister's lead guy is tremendously entertaining as he continues to verbally lay-out anyone he doesn't like or that gets in his way with ridiculously clever barbs. Hollander does well with the role of the cluelessly spineless Simon Foster. James Gandolfini and Mimi Kennedy each give strong performances, and Chris Addison, Anna Chlumsky (its good to see her back by the way), and the rest of the cast do nice work as well. Also look for Steve Coogan in a funny cameo as a "fogged off" Brit complaining about a wall.

The Verdict: While excessive and hard to follow at times, Iannucci, and his three other writers, create an adult satire that, while may not be for everybody, is pretty funny.

During a fit of collective insanity the British people voted for a charlatan snake-oil salesman to be Prime Minister in 1997 and then re-elected him twice more. This film (together with the TV series from which it is a spin-off) is a record of the disgusting, bullying manner in which Tony Blair's head spin doctor, (actually a man named Alastair Campbell, but here named Malcolm Tucker) ran the government.

It nicely paints a picture of just one of the ineffectual, dim, gaff-prone and incompetent ministers with which Saint Tony surrounded himself. Unfortunately we never get to glimpse the more senior figures of this feckless government, Gordon Brown and the appalling Mr Blair himself.

Quite bravely, the film sets out how the "intelligence" was manipulated by Campbell/Tucker in such a way that it gave credence to the necessity for the Iraq war. With hindsight this is perhaps the most egregious example of outrageous behaviour on his part, but maybe there are other examples still to come out. But it literally beggars belief that an unelected oaf like Campbell/Tucker should have been given the power and authority to act on the Prime Minister's behalf in the way that he did.

It has been pointed out that this film does for contemporary politics what "Yes Minister" did in the 1980s. Very true. Ministers are shown as complete bloody fools being manipulated by the Civil Servants ("Yes Minister") or private office appointees ("In the Loop"). "Yes Minister" was also quite misleadingly described as "Comedy". No, this will not do. Both these pieces are documentary, but funny nevertheless.

You laugh at the time, but if you think about it, you cry. What a state we have come to.

One of the wittiest and most sophisticated movie satires of recent vintage, "In the Loop" provides us with a hilarious behind-the-scenes glimpse into the ugly, messy world of international diplomacy. The mad run-up to the Iraq war serves as the obvious blueprint for the fictional - yet far from make-believe - tale the writers have come up with here. We begin in London where news has just leaked out that the British and Americans are planning a military invasion of an unspecified country in the Middle East. When the bumbling Minister for International Development, Simon Foster, accidentally goes off script by stating in an interview that such a war is "unforeseeable," the Prime Minister's staff goes into immediate damage control mode, hustling Foster off to Washington D.C. to see if they can get him in on the pre-war planning and negotiations. From that point on, Foster becomes a bone-of-contention between the pro-war and anti-war factions battling it out for preeminence.

The source for "In the Loop" is a popular British TV series entitled "The Thick of It," with many of the actors from that program appearing in the movie (though we're told that most of the performers play different roles in the film from the ones they play on the show). As if that weren't confusing enough, the script by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche spends virtually no time on introductions or back story of any kind, leaving those of us who are unfamiliar with the context feeling just a wee bit lost and disoriented at the beginning. Indeed, we are plunged so immediately into the swirl of activity surrounding the minister's diplomatic faux pas that we learn early on that we had better start paying some serious attention to what's happening on screen or risk going under in pretty short order. I say this not as a criticism of the writing because, frankly, this is one of the few comic scripts I've come across in quite some time that actually treats its audience like thinking adults, that doesn't find it necessary to talk down to us in order to appeal to the lowest-common-denominator viewer. The one-liners come fast and furious in this film and woe to anyone not willing to make the effort to keep up with them. The good news is that the writing is so sharp and acerbic that we really don't mind putting that extra added effort into our viewing. One simply cannot be a passive onlooker while watching "In the Loop" and still reap the rewards of the experience.

With the kind of understated irony that distinguishes the best of British humor, the densely-plotted, character-rich screenplay aims its comedic sights at all the would-be power players, petty backbiters, toadying assistants, long-suffering aides, incompetent bureaucrats, draconian bosses, mealy-mouthed office-holders and enraged constituents that make up the world of high-level diplomacy and politics. The movie also has some fun with England's perceived role as ugly stepsister (or lapdog, if you prefer) to the bully-boy United States in matters of world affairs.

Director Iannucci gets nothing less than a sterling performance from each and every member of his large and gifted cast, be they American (with James Gandolfini the most recognizable face in that crowd) or British. However, extra special note should be taken of Tom Hollander, Chris Addison, Mimi Kennedy and, above all, Peter Capaldi, who tears up the screen as the deliciously ill-tempered and foul-mouthed enforcer for the British Prime Minister.

The truths this allegorical fable reveals about how easy it is to cherry pick evidence to lead a country into war and how hard it is for individuals of goodwill to stand up for what they know is right are so dead-on in their accuracy and so universal in their scope that they leave the mind reeling from the impact - and the ribcage aching from all the laughter.