In the Loop (2009)

There is something inanely refreshing about a political satire that lets no one be the hero, instead letting every character serve as one way or another a villain. This is true of In the Loop, be it the witless Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), the aides Judy (Gine McKee) and Toby (Chris Addison), the press agent Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), the secretive Linton Barwick (David Rasche), the nosy Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy) or the soft Lt. Gen. Miller (James Gadolfini).

The movie opens with Simon Foster, the minister of something or other, making a gaffe on BBC radio, stating that war “is unforeseeable”. This starts a tumult, and Simon makes things worse by saying, later, the sometimes you must “Climb the Mountain of Conflict.” If anything, this movie is a prime example of why one small slip can ruin an entire political career.

The movie never states it, but one assumes that it is taking place in the days leading up the Iraq War, or war with another unnamed country in the Middle East. Director and co-writer Armando Ianucci cleverly never reveals the identity of the President, Vice President, or Prime Minister, and the exact crisis in the Middle East is left unexplained.

The movie is fast, using the documentary style now associated with The Office, and slings jokes at the audience quicker then machine gun fire. The plot is thick, sometimes hard to conceive, but the movie’s trick is it is never boring. Some compare it Dr. Strangelove (1964), and I think that is a fair comparison. Strangelove was a model for the paranoia of the Cold War, and brilliantly pitted the Americans and the Russians opposite each other. Here, it is the British and Americans arguing about going to war.

Maybe the movies greatest strength, and weakness, is that there is no one character you can really root for. Gadolfini’s Gen. Miller is definitely a soft type: he looks friendly, and calmly and cheerfully insults anyone who irks him. Capaldi’s Malcolm is a horse of a different color, blurting obscenities of high caliber imagination, and furiously berating everyone in his path. In one great scene, he goes to the White House to be briefed on a war committee, only to find that the person who is briefing him is a 23-year-old. His reaction and subsequent action is priceless.

There is also the part of the dueling assistants, Liza Weld (Anna Chlumsky) and Michael Rodgers (James Smith), and the scheming, loathsome Toby. Everyone is a backstabber, and I have to say if anyone in power is as clumsy or inept as the characters in this movie (as I do suspect a lot of our elected officials are), then it would explain some of the more outrageous things that have come to pass.

In the Loop also has the distinct honor of being one of the first satires of the Iraq War, and thankfully lands it right. Mishandled, it could have offended, but this way it is hilarious, insightful, and just makes you damn mad at the way things are handled in the corridors of power.

Not Rated, but contains many colorful swears