Good evening, Afghanistan
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (R16)
112 mins Best known for her spot-on satires, double-teaming with Amy Poehler and impersonation of Sarah Palin, it’s a very different Tina Fey who headlines this Afghanistan-set black comedy.
She plays Kim Baker, an United States television network copywriter, pressed into service as a conflict correspondent as America opened up its War on Terror across two fronts in 2003.
What started out as a threemonth assignment, turned into three years, as the initially reluctant Baker (more used to ‘‘writing news scripts for dumb, pretty people to read’’), struggling with the polluted air, basic amenities and non-stop noise, then found herself having to justify her position as the public back home lost interest.
Based on Kim Barker’s account – The Taliban Shuffle – of her misadventures as an embedded reporter in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot treads the line between slapstick and serious drama far more proficiently than last year’s similarly set Rock the Kasbah.
Whereas that film was as languid as Bill Murray’s laconic central performance, directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s ( Crazy Stupid Love, Focus) tale is never less than entertaining or engrossing. In many ways, it reminds one of Good Morning, Vietnam, with its mix of laugh-outloud moments and willingness to also delve into the mirky politics and human drama playing out in the countryside surrounding the main characters.
Here, Robert Carlock’s (TV’s 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) script shows how seemingly cordial journalists are willing to betray each other over a story and graphically illustrates how bad decisions cost lives.
While there’s a tendency in the film’s second half for it to develop into a series of set pieces and Kim’s stagnating relationship with her ‘‘mildly depressive’’ boyfriend ( The Good Wife’s Josh Charles) back home feels undercooked, that’s more than made up for by a cadre of witty and erudite characters and a surprisingly sweet relationship between Fey’s Baker and Scottish freelance photographer Iain MacKelpie (a charismatic Martin Freeman).
He’s part of an impressive supporting cast that also includes The Wolf of Wall Street’s Margot Robbie as a rival reporter, Billy Bob Thornton’s ( Bad Santa) gruff marines Colonel and Alfred Molina’s ‘‘friendly’’ Afghan attorney general.
However, they are all outshone by the impressive Fey. An appealing mix of charm and chutzpah, she makes for an entertaining and unashamedly flawed guide to the craziness of life in the Kabul ‘‘Kabubble’’.