After rows over expenses, second homes and who should bite the bullet, ‘Bumbling’ is 2009’s dictionary entry for a Minister of Parliament. Apt then, that one the year’s best films, Armando Lannuci’s political satire In the Loop, should show Westminster as a proverbial playground full of bullies and spineless cowards with feet in mouths.
Based on Lannuci’s BBC comedy The Thick of It, he’s kept many regular characters, including acid-tongued Scottish spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) and wet-behind-the-ears ministerial aide Toby (Chris Addison), but had a slight cabinet reshuffle with the likes of Steve Coogan and James Gandolfini adding a dollop of Hollywood to the political shtick. Perhaps the biggest addition is lead Tom Hollander as the inept Secretary of State who accidentally tells a radio show that a war in the Middle East is ‘unforeseeable’, cue across-the-pond interest from Gandolfini’s uncompromising General Miller who aims to use the minister as a “meat-puppet” to stop the proposed war. But when other White House staff think differently Foster is ordered to travel to Washington for talks. While stateside Foster has to deal with Tucker watching his every move and calls from Blighty, where a livid Coogan campaigns at his constituency for a crumbling garden wall which he blames on the Minister.
Big screen outings for television comedies tend to run out of laughs after the time of an average episode, even more so for a crossover that’s aesthetically limited. But In the Loop revels in fly-on-the-wall filmmaking, sweeping shots of frantic politicians running past various landmarks are second nature to Lannuci who has stepped up from small screen to the big leagues with ease, helped by a great script. Written as if carved with a knife, the dialogue is sharp and violently hilarious, so horrible that “you’ll be shitting teeth”
No one profits from the political banter more than Tucker, a figure bore from fire and brimstone with an addiction for the torture of ministers. His head resembles that of a chicken with rabies as he cluelessly runs around Washington trying to control the situation and interfere with a UN resolution. Literally, a breathless performance.
Indeed Foster and his aide Toby also look lost in a shiny world that is there to eat them up as they arrive in Washington at the beginning of the second act. But straight after travelling in a motorcade, thinking they’re in a movie, it’s clear that satire is unforgiving: Unlike stuffy Whitehall, the U.S state departments are modern, slick, as are the fast-talking, better-looking equivalents of the British ministers. Fresh-faced 23-year-old’s don’t run errands for fresh coffee, as Tucker finds out in a White House meeting, they run the country. After being insulted by the age of his appointment, Tucker storms out to make an angry call to London only to get the response: “You know they're all kids in Washington. It's like Bugsy Malone, but with real guns.”
During the final act, miniature battles ensue, mainly between Foster and the British tabloids. The media shift interest from slip-up quotes of war to Steve Coogan’s nutter protesting outside Foster’s local constituency. Cameos like this are rare, funny and pertinent. Meanwhile, veins on Tucker’s forehead look set to burst as he goes about last minute meddling at the UN meeting before he gets an epic standoff with Gandolfini’s general, using swearing and gritted teeth delivery as ammo and wry smiles as shields.
Topical to a point that exceeds irony, In the Loop hands the spade to politicians who dig their own grave amid issues parallel to real-life. Using jargon they don’t understand, British politicians threaten Anglo-American relations by not doing as they are told in a terrifically funny film. A film which has not only made swearing an art form, but made it a reason to go to war.
5/5
Joe Ellison
