In the loop

Right well I thought I would review another Brit movie, and this one is a spin off of one of my favourite TV shows, The Thick of It, starring Peter Capaldi in the role of the aggressive and vitriolic spin doctor, Malcolm Tucker.

So to start with a quick look at the plot, it all starts with a bumbling minister, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) who makes a comment on a live radio show that war in the Middle East is "unforseeable".  The prime minister's spin doctor, Malcolm Tucker (Capaldi, great as he ever was in this role) on hearing the comment gives Foster a bollocking and tells him that he was to walk the party line.  Later on Foster is caught by the press and TV cameras and he says "there may be a need to climb the mountain of conflict" which contradicts his earlier comment, and get's him into further trouble with Malcolm.  Malcolm however decides to send Foster to the US on a psuedo fact finding mission, along with his hapless aide Toby (Chris Addison).  As he meets with some US state officials, which include the devious Linton Barwick (David Rasche) the Assistant secretary of state for policy, Karen Clark (Mimmi Kennedy) assistant secretary of state for diplomacy, and her assistant, Liza Weld (Anna Chlumsky), as well as Lt General Miller (James Gandolfini).  And Simon ends up getting used as a pawn in an international political game, as his comments are taken out of context and used as the catalyst to start a war in the Middle East.   And as the film progresses things get deeper and deeper for Simon, Malcolm and Toby as they all have to play their part in the US officials political game.

In the loop is an excellent spin-off of the great TV show, The Thick of It, in which its structure is very similar to that of the show, in that an incompetent minister is used as a pawn by Malcolm Tucker for his own ends at that of the party.  In fact all the actors from the series appear in the film, except most of them play different characters (except Peter Capaldi, and Paul Higgins as Jamie).  Tucker on the other hand also to try and contend with Simon's incompetence and find ways for him to resolve them, and in the end (PLOT SPOILER) Tucker realises that he has no real choice but to bump him, which makes for a rather cruel end.  The film itself actually mirrors the events that lead up to the Invasion of Iraq back in 2003, and as it progesses the political pressure cooker really heats up.  And what makes In the loop work so well, is the writing, which is both hilarious and savage, as the cast don't hold back with their brutal expletives, especially with Malcolm's!

Which brings me onto the performances, which are all great, starting with Peter Capaldi, as Malcolm Tucker, which will forever be the part he will be remembered for no doubt, and he is superb in his role as the ruthless, intimidating, not too much potty mouthed spin doctor.  Capaldi get's plenty of great lines of dialogue throughout, of which I will mention only a few as I would be here all day!  Starting with one of my favourites where Malcolm bashes the director of communications for iternational development, Judy Molloy (Gina McKee) by saying to her "well allow me to pop a jaunty little bonnet on you while I ram it up the shitter with a lubricated horse cock!" which I will never forget.  There is also the line where he makes a surprise visit to see Simon in Washington and enters his hotel room, where Toby comes out the toilet and he gasps in surprise and Malc says "you're supposed to shit yourself in there, not out here!".  Also another favourite is when Malcolm is accosted by an American for swearing and he replies "kiss my sweaty balls, ya fat fuck!".

Also his scene with James Gandolfini is great as the two of them lock heads and have a few words, where Tucker asks him "have you ever killed anybody?  I mean really killed them and not just slept on them!".  And lastly near the end of the film when he tells his opposite, Linton Barwick just what he thinks of him by saying "you really are a boring fuck!  I'm sorry I know you disapprove of the swearing, I'll fix that.  You are an f** cunt!".  

Tom Hollander is also really good in his role as the incompetent minister, Simon Foster, and he has quite a few funny moments, one of which is when he is in conference room with all the US state officials and they look to him for a quote and he nervously says "well in our country we have a saying, which is its difficult, difficult, lemon lemon difficult".  Also later when he is supposed to meet with Toby along with Karen Clark, and Toby turns up late and Simon berates Toby sarcastically by saying "oh you did alright, its not like took your dick out, starting playing with it, willy banjo!".  Chris Addison is also good in his part as Toby, who is basically another version of Ollie from the TV show, as he is a rather inexperienced and cocky, although he isn't given as many great lines as he usually does in the show.  Although my favourite is easily when he talks to Chad (played by Zach Woods) a junior staffer who is slagging of Toby's love interest Amy (or bit on the side more like) in a pretentious way, and Toby says "you talk entirely in parables, you're like a crap Jesus!".

James Gandolfini is great in his part as Lt General Miller, who is a retired army soldier, who get's involved in the political game to start a war in the Middle East and his big and imposing frame makes him an initimating presence in the film.  This is especially shown in the show when Linton stands him up for a meeting and he is furious and he snatches a magazine from a member of staff, crunches it up and hands it to Linton's aide saying "give this to your boss!".  Also later on when he argues with Karen she accuses him of not being a real soldier anymore and he shouts "I'm a soldier, its not like you need to drag a bloody corpse every so many years into the Whitehouse to renew your "soldier" license!" and also "you don't talk about my balls, you have no idea where my balls have been!".  But my personal favourite is near the end when Toby approaches him to see if he wants to become his aide and Miller says "go fuck yourself, Frodo!".

And in other smaller roles, Paul Higgins makes a welcome return as Jamie (named Jamie MacDonald actually in the film) Malcolm's press officer, who is even more aggressive and intimidating than he is.  And to say he has some great lines is an understatement, starting with his first scene when he walks in and slags off Simon who is in trouble over a collapsed wall in his constituency of Northamptonshire.  And the line is "well if it isn't humpty numpty, sitting on a collapsing wall like some clueless egg cunt!" and he goes on to bollock Toby by shouting "shut it, Love Actually! Do you want me to hole punch your face!".  After that he shows  a newspaper covering the story of the collapsed wall and he refers to the builders who never showed up, and Jamie angrily says "what did you expect?!  They're buildiers!  And there are no superheroes that are builders, and you know why??? Because they never fucking turn up in the nick of time! Spider builder?? Super builder??  That's why you never see a superhero with a hod!!".  Also later when Jamie intimidates two members of staff Michael and Suzy (played by James Smith and Olivia Poulet, who both played Glenn Cullen and Emma from the TV show) in to trying to admit if they leaked a report when he kicks and smashes up a fax machine, which he claims was used, and he says to Michael, who claims he leaked it, "that you're career is as fucked as this fax machine!  Is it fucked??" he kicks it "Yeah its pretty fucked!".  Also he shouts at Michael who has opera music playing in the background "turn that fucking noise down!" Its just vowels!  Subsidised fucking vowels!".

Getting onto the film's flaws, well it doesn't have too many glaring ones, but I think one of the things it can be said about it is that some of the regular cast are really sidelined into smaller roles, especially James Smith, and Joanna Scanlan (who played Teri Coverley in the TV show) which is a pity.  Also as a result of that there are some new characters in the American cast that have small and pretty insignificant roles that probably could have been done away with (although Zach Woods as the pretentious junior US staffer is one of the best).  Also the plot in itself is pretty convoluted and is hard to follow at times, but the upshot is its all about mirroring the invasion of Iraq.  And on a character level, as loathsome as he can be at times, Malcolm Tucker can also be strangely likeable, and you almost root for him when he is under the cosh from Linton towards the end of the film.  But in the end he rather nastily shafts Simon for his incompetence, but you have to remember of course that Malcolm is a bastard and a media monster, and in comparison to what he does to Nicola Murray in the TV show, its rather tame.

So that's it for my look at In the loop, which is an intelligent, funny and caustic satire, and if you liked The Thick of It, then you will find much to enjoy here also.

And I shall lie it there just now.