Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Wartime Tina feature…
Making a funny film about the war in Afghanistan is tricky. Headlining it with two female stars – and successfully passing the Bechdel Test – is even trickier. So you have to wonder WTF anyone was thinking when they cast white actors in the two key Afghan roles.
Based on Kim Barker’s The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days In Afghanistan And Pakistan, Whiskey sees Kim Baker (Fey), a disgruntled copywriter on a mid-tier news network, plonked in Kabul in the hopes of raising ratings with frontline footage. The inexperienced Baker is taken under various wings at the cruddy journalist digs: her stoic Afghan fixer, Fahim (Christopher Abbott) who protects her from ridicule and the Taliban with equal aplomb; rival reporter Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie), who shows her the professional and sexual ropes of this screwed-up new world; and Hollanek (Billy Bob Thornton), a sardonic general who gives Baker tough love. Throw in a cartoony Afghan official (Alfred Molina) plus Martin Freeman doing Scottish as a rumpled war photographer and Baker’s new life transforms from cock-ups (like losing cash in an Afghan wind) to a new normal and a hunger to get the next big story.
To the credit of a hugely appealing Fey, Baker is a (mostly) gender-neutral hero rather than mere chick-flick protagonist, by turns spiky and sweet. But much goodwill is blasted by Molina’s oleaginous turn and Abbott’s spot-on but bemusing performance. Which is a shame as this Private Benjamin- in-the-Middle-East has the potential to be that rare beast, a feminist crowdpleaser.
THE VERDICT Entertaining but problematic, WTF almost hits the target but is scuppered by friendly fire. › Certificate TBC Directors John Requa, Glenn Ficarra Starring Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Alfred Molina Screenplay Robert Carlock Distributor Paramount Running time 122 mins