Review: In The Loop

Apr 17 2009 The Journal

LANDSCAPE: In the Loop (DO NOT REUSE)

POLITICS is full of so much spin and hyperbole, you could be forgiven for thinking that there is no substance whatsoever behind all of the handshakes and smiles.

Award-winning satirist, Armando Iannucci, evidently thinks so too, poking mercilessly fun at the political establishment in his scabrous BBC Four series The Thick Of It.

Iannucci reunites with the same writing team for this sardonic and foul-mouthed film, which crams more belly laughs into its first 20 minutes than most comedies manage in two hours.

To say the script is polished to perfection and peppered with dazzling one-liners would be an understatement.

The only danger is that you’ll be guffawing so hard at some of the gags, the next punchline will be lost amid the delirium.

Some of the protagonists from The Thick Of It are resurrected, but the film stands alone as a biting indictment of blather and bluster.

Ardent fans of the TV series will be just as helpless with laughter as complete newcomers to this world of sound bites and media manipulation.

In the eye of the storm is tenacious communications chief Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), who is hurriedly called into action to minimise the damage created by bumbling British Secretary of State for International Development, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), after the minister claims that a US and British backed war is "unforeseeable."

Foster then compounds his problems when he gives a second television interview.

"To walk the road of peace," he blunders, "Sometimes we need to be ready to climb the mountain of conflict."

Tucker is aghast: "You sound like a Nazi Julie Andrews!"

At the insistence of the Prime Minister, Foster heads for Washington accompanied by new aide Toby (Chris Addison), while director of communications Judy (Gina McKee) papers the cracks back home.

Foster soon finds himself embroiled in a tug of war between the pro and anti-war factions, the latter spearheaded by US Assistant Secretary for Diplomacy Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy) and US General Miller (James Gandolfini).

While Tucker tries to prevent his man in a suit saying another word and embarrassing the British government any more, Toby woos Karen Clarke’s ambitious intern.

The film is hysterical, anchored by a virtuoso turn from Capaldi as the master of spin who will stop at nothing to achieve his party’s goals.

Hollander is a lovable klutz, getting one of the biggest laughs when his politician casually remarks he dare not watch an adult movie on the hotel television system in case he has to declare it.

The plot unfolds at a lick with hardly any of the 105 minutes wasted as a potty- mouthed Scottish spin-doctor rebuilds reputations from the ashes with his finger on the political pulse.