In The Loop: MSN Review

In fact, Ianucci’s debut feature feels less like a movie and more like one of those BBC Christmas specials from yesteryear, where the cast of a long-running soap or sitcom jet off to somewhere exotic.  In this case the location is Washington, where hapless minister Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), invited to Capitol Hill on a fact-finding mission,  finds himself hopelessly entangled in political preparations for war in the Middle East. A dodgy dossier of justifications for the conflict is inching through the United Nations, whipped along by Peter Capaldi’s magnificently bug-eyed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (a none-too-subtle caricature of Alistair Campbell), and everyone is having to pick sides.

While Iraq, WMDs and the infamous 45 minute warning never get a mention, it’s pretty clear which bit of recent history Ianucci is tackling here. Closely following the format of the TV show, In The Loop uses a combination of faux documentary style filming, fiercely witty scripts and on the spot improvisation to create a powerful sense of spontaneous reality, even as the events on screen become more and more surreal. After a while, it seems perfectly natural to see James Gandolfini’s US Army General – a Colin Powell style dove among hawks -  working out potential casualties on a Speak N Spell in the First Daughter’s bedroom. “At the end of a war you want to have some soldiers left,” he mutters,  “otherwise people tend to think that you’ve lost.”

In Ianucci’s world, the American policymakers and press secretaries are every bit as venal and incompetent as their UK equivalents. It’s like watching the anti-West Wing, and serves it as a sharp reminder that the nuts and bolts of politics never change: Barack Obama’s White House is probably every bit as snarled in red tape and backstabbing apparatchicks as the Bush, Blair or Brown administrations.

In The Loop is very, very funny, never more so than when Capaldi is throwing out obscenities like a catherine wheel showering sparks – “are you sure you’re working as hard as me?” he asks a colleague, “because I’m sweating spinal fluid here.” However, beneath the jokes there is a new and biting sense of anger. While it never insists on anything so trite as a moral, the script won’t let you forget that these grasping careerists and narcissistic fools are playing for the highest of stakes. And as the war moves ever closer, as evidence is fabricated and Tucker threatens to hound his opponents to the point of suicide, you get an awful sense that it might actually have happened like this. A bleakly hilarious film, flawlessly written and performed, In The Loop is a strong contender for comedy of the year.

 

So funny you'll be gasping for breath.

 

 

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