Studio: IFC Films
Rated: NOT RATED
Cast: James Gandolfini, David Rasche, Anna Chlumsky, Enzo Cilenti, Paul Higgins
Director: Armando Iannucci
WorkNameSort: In the Loop
Our Rating: 5.00
It's safe to say that there will not be a funnier film delivered to theaters this year than In the Loop. My bladder hasn't been at such a high risk of succumbing to gasping hysterics since the relentless assault of the Uncle Fucker scene in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, during which I literally fell out of my seat laughing. I was able to comport myself a bit better during this film ' instead of a single scene, the entire film is relentless ' but just barely.
In the Loop is something of a continuation of the BBC TV series The Thick of It. The utterly fantastic Peter Capaldi and Paul Higgins revive their roles as Malcolm Tucker and Jamie MacDonald respectively in this farce about the lead-up to war in the Middle East.
After a disastrous radio interview in which the unlucky British minister of international development, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), slips up and calls the war 'unforeseeableâ?� ' quite against the government's established media line, Tucker assures him ' Foster and his staff are unexpectedly tossed into the middle of an international imbroglio with both the doves and the hawks. Foster doesn't help matters with a second disastrous interview attempting to fix the first, in which he says the British government must 'climb the mountain of conflict.â?�
The haplessness of politicians (and their equally hapless aides) is a universal truth, it seems, and there is no better time than now to run them through for their mealy-mouthed tendencies and their ineffectiveness as thoroughly as Iannucci and company do here. The wit and skill on offer don't quite make up for the lack of brains and balls in power seats in government, but it does make it all right for two hours at least.
The film is about the political intrigue, of course, but really, its centerpiece is the enduring satanic charm of Malcolm Tucker, the prime minister's communications director. The willful exuberance ' almost glee ' with which Tucker goes on his vituperative rampages, savaging anyone in his line of sight, is one of the most skillful bits of writing and acting seen in ages. It's a masterstroke of nuance and strategy, not just a string of blind 'fuck youâ?�s stuck in for comedy or snarling charm. (When confronted by a female staffer, Tucker unleashes the following: "Where do you think you are, in some fucking Regency costume drama? This is a government department, not a fucking Jane fucking Austen novel! Allow me to pop a jaunty little bonnet on your 'purview' and ram it up your shitter with a lubricated horse cock!â?�) Tucker slowly bends everyone to his viewpoint and manipulates his way through the U.S. State Department and the United Nations.
In a way, Tucker is the anti-Ari Gold, his closest American onscreen analogue ' the jerk agent played by Jeremy Piven on Entourage, while all vicious bluster on the surface, is a sappy family man on the side. (Oddly enough, the character of Ari Gold is based on the real-life brother of Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's scream-happy chief of staff and the closest thing we have to a real-life Malcolm Tucker counterpart.) Tucker? You can't imagine him having a family or even having had a childhood. It's as if he accumulated out of thin air fully formed and smarter than you on the day the prime minister was sworn in. He is a straight pit bull with the bark, bite and heart that entails.
