In The Loop @ Princess Cinema

My ancient car has been letting out increasingly potent death rattles, occupying my recent attentions with concerns of the mechanical rather than the cinematical. However, on Tuesday I was able to drop in to the Princess Cinema in Waterloo with a couple of friends to watch In The Loop before it was cut from my favourite KW movie venue.

It's tough for me to really categorize In The Loop beyond saying that it's a British political comedy, which admittedly might be enough for a lot of folks to decide it's worth watching. The film for the most part centers on Toby, the communications assistant to British MP and cabinet minister of unknown portfolio Simon Foster (Tom Hollander). Toby transfers over from the Ministry of Agriculture just as Foster, a non-player in the British parliament, becomes an unwilling figurehead for a proposed American-British war in the Middle East due to a botched television interview in which he proclaims that "war is unforeseeable." Foster is essentially a communication assistant's worst nightmare, and the film's plot is driven by his frantic attempts to avoid been labeled as a "hawk" while simultaneously attempting to bolster his career profile by participating in the political process of war planning.

Anna Chlumsky as Liza Weld, assistant to the US Assistant Secretary of State

The film also features Sopranos star James Gandolfini as an American general trying to avoid a pointless war, and a grown-up Anna Chlumsky (My Girl) as the assistant to the US Assistant Secretary of State.

The big thing about this movie for me is that none of the characters are particularly likable. Foster, for example, is a bumbling opportunist who is out of touch with his constituents, and Toby is hilariously inept, not only at his job but at life in general. General Miller (Gandolfini), in trying to avert another war might be viewed one of the "good" guys, but as a character he is as manipulative as he is crude and uncharismatic. There are no characters in this movie who you can ever really get on board with 100%, as even the ones who don't seem all bad deserve scorn due their ineptitude or their awful, petty personalities.  In this sense it's kind of like watching from a distance as a  bunch of your coworkers fumble around their jobs, which to me is where the movie really shines. These are "real" people in the political process, and you aren't supposed to like them or the spectacle that they are engaged in, even if at times you pity or empathise with them.

In The Loop's Malcom Tucker, played by Peter Capaldi

Ironically, perhaps the only character I "liked" in this movie was Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), the unrelentingly vicious advisor to the PM who's continuous stream of profanity and misogyny establish him as perhaps one of the only authentic characters in the film. Malcom's job consists entirely of bullying Foster et al. into doing what Malcom wants done in the most rude and insulting manner possible, and yet you can't help but appreciate him because he is actually good at what he does. Unlike the other characters in the film, Malcom doesn't try and mumble or sidestep his way through tough situations.

I had a great time with this film, it was a nice change of pace from the political dramas it satirizes in which there are good guys campaigning for the "right" policies and the bad guys who stand in there way.

Not to give anything away, but there is no happy ending. In fact, the ending is comically depressing.