In
the Loop
by
Chris Dashiell
In the Loop is something different—a
sharp, biting comedy from Britain depicting the lead-up to war in the
Middle East as a petty catfight between rival politicians. Good political
satire is hard to come by in the United States—too often we get
something dumbed down and heavy-handed like W, Oliver Stone’s
recent attempt at satirizing Bush. In this case, the Brits’ greater
facility for verbal wit, combined with a bit more political courage,
attains the right mix of savagery and amusement.
A
British cabinet minister named Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) gets in
over his head by telling an interviewer that war is “unforeseeable.”
For this he earns the wrath of Malcolm Tucker, a ruthless and hilariously
foul-mouthed Scottish chief aide to the Prime Minister, played with
tremendous gusto by Peter Capaldi. Although the acting in this multiple-character
film is uniformly excellent, it is the dynamic between Capaldi as the
sadistic aggressor and Hollander as his victim that centers the picture.
Simon Foster is an urbane yet clueless self-seeker who continues to
say the wrong things even as he stumbles into the British-American talks
leading up to the possible invasion of an unspecified country. Part
of what makes Hollander’s performance special is that, although
Foster cringes before Tucker’s rage, he always tries to sustain
some kind of pride and self-respect as well, to amusing effect.
A
young aide to Foster named Toby Wright (Chris Addison), nerdy and new
on the job, mirrors his boss’s ineptitude by leaking the wrong
information at the wrong time, a tendency which ends up helping the
American war faction, led by a condescending and pretentious White House
insider played by David Rasche. Opposing the hawks in Washington are
an acerbic Assistant Secretary of State named Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy)
and a general (James Gandolfini) who wants to stop the rush to war.
The bitter joke in all this is that nobody really discusses principles—it’s
all framed in terms of personal hatreds and power plays, with insults
and put-downs flying fast and furious.
In
the Loop is directed by Armando Ianucchi, and three or four other
clever writers helped him out with the script. Ianucchi has had success
with similar comic efforts on television, and the film’s skit-like
structure is reminiscent of something like The Office, but
with the stakes much higher, and consequently a greater sense of relevance.
The characters are exaggerated just enough to make us laugh at the ridiculousness
of it all—in real life, inter-agency political rivalries are not
so devoid of ideas or so articulately funny, but what’s alarming
is how close the film comes to the truth regarding our top echelons
of government, despite the fact that it’s a spoof. Sometimes the
film is uneven, descending to mere insult comedy—but the essential
contrast between these small-minded politicians and the earth-shaking
nature of their power grounds the picture in reality. This is not trivial
SNL-type silliness. The screenplay has a good feel for the down-and-dirty
machinations, the absurd labyrinths of bureaucracy, the wretched Orwellian
lingo (a war committee, for example, is called a “future planning
committee”), and the endless jockeying for career advantage with
no relation whatsoever to the good of the world.
Each
functionary has a clone-like aide accentuating the basic tendencies
of that character. Even Malcolm Tucker has a Scottish right-hand man
(James Smith) who is more aggressive and profane than his boss. Sex
gets thrown into the mix as well—Toby has a casual fling with
Karen Clarke’s aide Liza (Anna Chlumsky) who has written a paper
making a case against war that ends up becoming a political hot potato.
He gets caught, and thrown out by his girlfriend, and like all the private
elements in the story, it parallels the official nonsense going on in
the corridors of power.
In the
Loop takes potshots at as many targets as it can in an hour and
a half—there’s also the theme of British embarrassment and
feelings of inferiority comparing their parochialism to the pompous,
powerful Americans. In the midst of all the maneuvering, Foster has
to deal with an idiotic village constituent (Steve Coogan) complaining
about a crumbling wall on his property. A confrontation between Gandolfini’s
general and a sputtering Capaldi also underlines the power disparity
between the ostensible allies. Iraq is never mentioned, and most of
the characters are loosely drawn enough to obscure whatever real-life
counterparts they may have, which is a good strategy. The real events
are only a template for the craven political game-playing that goes
on all the time, and this melancholy insight is the source of the film’s
humor.
I suppose there’s always the danger that a film like this can
be overrated. This is not a masterpiece of cinematic style, mind you.
Nevertheless, In the Loop is a very intelligent and most expertly
acted political satire. It has the nerve to show how decisions resulting
in thousands of deaths can arise from the most limited and self-serving
characters you’d ever have the misfortune to meet.
©2009 Chris Dashiell
CineScene
