In The Loop (15)
- Starring: Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, James Gandolfini, Steve Coogan, Paul Higgins
- Director: Armando Iannucci
- Duration: 109 mins
- Year: 2009
Tom Hollander’s Simon Foster is the kind of fresh-faced idealist who entered politics because he felt he could make a difference. Now he is secretary of state for the Department of International Development and about to become embroiled in a brewing war in the Middle East. He seems to be against the war but winds up appearing the ideal hawk in the eyes of the American and British governments, thrust into the snake pit of international diplomacy.
Reviews
Alison Rowat's Review
Imagine Yes Minister scripted by Lenny Bruce and you have some idea of the spectacular profanity and political savvy roaring like a hurricane through Armando Iannucci’s superb comedy, which has its UK premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival tonight.
Though lauded at Sundance, there’s a sense of celebratory homecoming about tonight’s Glasgow Film Theatre gala. It’s not just the strong Scots flavour to the piece, with Iannucci directing and Peter Capaldi and Paul Higgins stealing the picture as psycho press officers whose foul-mouthed rants could strip paint from a battleship. In the Loop belongs here because it’s doubtful any American filmmakers of today would be so downright rude about politicians, especially in the touchy-feely age of Obama. In the Loop is the antidote to The West Wing view of politics: a down-and-dirty, viciously funny indictment of men in suits who treat war like a video game in which no-one gets hurt.
In the Loop began life as a BBC TV drama, The Thick of It, and there’s much about the movie which betrays its small screen origins. Indeed, it’s more a Christmas special with bells on than a proper, grown-up, motion picture, unless you count Peter Capaldi running through the streets of Washington DC like a demented emu as an action shot. Most of the film consists of people jibber-jabbering in offices in London, New York and DC, filmed in a handheld style to convey the giddy chaos of it all.
With very little movement on screen, In the Loop relies on blistering dialogue to come alive. Which is where the film’s writers, including Iannucci plus Jesse Armstrong and Simon Blackwell (Peep Show, The Thick of It) come in.
The smart lines spill out like the contents of a pinata, each fresh whack at the establishment bringing forth more. I’d mention a few of the best but for three good reasons – it would spoil the fun, this is a family newspaper, and my computer’s asterisk key would explode from overuse.
Many of the expletives are directed at Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), the hapless cabinet minister who wanders into a tussle between Britain and the US over whether to invade an unspecified Middle Eastern country. Hounded by attack dog Malcolm Tucker (Capaldi), the Downing Street director of communications, and pecked at by various hawks and doves, Foster doesn’t know his dodgy dossier from his elbow, but he’s about to find out how the big beasts of politics operate. He’s also taking grief from an irate constituent (an ace cameo from Steve Coogan, Iannucci’s old mucker on Alan Partridge).
The only characters who emerge with any credit from the manoeuvrings that follow are the female ones. Mimi Kennedy’s assistant secretary of state valiantly tries to hold back the boys and their toys, while Gina McKee, an actress who is to smart and foxy what Capaldi is to swearing, is the nearest thing to the movie’s heroine as a cool British civil servant 10 steps ahead of the game.
Joining Capaldi and Higgins in the macho Olympics are James “Tony Soprano” Gandolfini, playing an anti-war general, and David Rasche, who functions as a Rumsfeld/Cheney figure. Mention of these characters bring us to what was, for me, a serious weakness in the script. Although the country to be invaded is purposely left unnamed to give the story a contemporary relevance and not make it look like a rehash of the run-up to the war in Iraq, a lot of elements will seem familiar from that mess. The next war won’t unfold in the same way, if only because too many people have been through that particular movie before. Yet there is no fresh thinking on that score, and that was a disappointment.
What we learn from In the Loop is what a grubby business politics can sometimes be. Faced with the choice of laughing or crying at such a carry-on, Iannucci pokes merciless fun. As Malcolm would never say, a jolly good show, son.