In the Loop: Review By harveycritic

IN THE LOOP

IFC Films

Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten

Grade: C+

Directed by: Armando Iannucci

Written By: Armando Ianucci, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche

Cast: James Gandolfini,Tom Hollander, Peter Capaldi, Steve Coogan, Gina McKee, Chris Addison, Anna Chlumsky

Screened at: Core Club, NYC, 7/21/09

Opens: July 24, 2009

Take a look at any Sunday New York Times News in Review section. Turn to the ads for executives in academic settings and you’ll find what look like impossible criteria for candidates to meet for what amounts to not much in the grand scheme of things. Supt of Schools, for example, often requires that a candidate be a master teacher for 10 years, prove himself or herself as the assistant principal of a school, rising to principal, and what’s more the principal must raise reading levels by 10% at the end of his first year—or don’t bother to apply.

You’d think we have top people in high positions of government, the elite functionaries of major powers who decide on whether or not to risk all life on earth, given the expansive nuclear club, by invading a country thousands of miles away. Yet “In the Loop” demonstrates that we here in the U.S. as well as those on 10 Downing Street are led by either near-toddlers (22-year-olds) fresh out of Harvard or Oxford, or by foul-mouthed dolts who spend more time worrying about the wars of words than about the necessities of combat. The Iraq War is not specified in Armando Iannucci’s political satire, “In the Loop,” nor do we in the audience have to care which particular combat falls under the satiric barbs of Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche and the director, who all serve as scripters. While some of the dialogue appears improvised, I’d guess that director Iannucci, having gone through re-writes and countless rehearsals of his acting staff, wants the majesty of the language of Shakespeare and Milton to ooze through.

Nonetheless—and while I realize that the film has today received a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes—I cannot help feeling that this British comedy has not traveled that well across the Atlantic. “In the Loop” does not have the more obvious humor of the TV comedy Fawty Towers or the surreal qualities of Monty Python. This is more sophisticated, requiring the audience to have solid grounding in political science or at least be news junkies in following the momentous events of the past few years. But for me, this is no “Dr Strangelove” or even “Wag the Dog” but a less-than-riotous stab at the people who make the decisions that could lead to results ranging from solid victory however the cost (World War II) , outright defeats without honor (as in Vietnam), or dragged-out battles that have already caused much of the world to hate the dominant powers.

“In the Loop” serves as an expansion of the BBC TV series “The Thick of It,” this time centering on a verbal foible from Britain’s Minister of International Development, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), a diminutive, well-dressed chap that on one radio show has treated the possibility of a new war in the Middle East to involve Britain and the U.S. to be both “unfeasible” and yet one than may be made “necessary to climb the mountain of combat.” Is Britain going to side with the U.S. in upcoming combat? The prime minister is afraid that the waters have been muddied, therefore sending his director of communications, Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), to shoot his foul mouth off against what he considers agents of stupidity while U.S. State Department official Linton Barwick (David Rasche) beats the drums for war.

Meetings take place, opinions are blurted apparently without thought. Liberal Assistant Secretary of State Karen (Mimi Kennedy) and dovish four-star General Miller (James Gandolfini) meet in the one of the film’s few gems of comedy—in a child’s bedroom, where they figure out the costs of war with a toy calculator.

The film could have been clearer had Director of International Development Simon Foster limited his verbiage to the “unfeasibility of war” rather than counter with its opposite, thereby setting the politicians into strict liberal vs. conservative battles to influence the vote of a UN committee. Side roles that add somewhat to the parody are those of Toby (Chris Addison), a dimwitted assistant to Simon—who has a one-night stand with ambitious young Karen--who apparently has been doing the real work of writing position papers accepted by the assistant secretary of state. Color me out of the loop.

Unrated. 106 minutes. © 2009 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online