WTF from the title best expresses my confusion.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Grade: C
Directors: Glenn Ficarra (I Love You Phillip Morris), John Requa (Bad Santa)
Screenplay: Robert Carlock from the Kim Barker book, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Cast: Tina Fey (Sisters), Margot Robbie (Focus)
Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hr 52 min
by John DeSando
The first letters of the title’s three words pretty much sum up my mixed reaction to this war-zone rom-com. What the? were producer Lorne Michaels and super comic Tina Fey thinking when, coming from Saturday Night Live, they offer a film that doesn’t know if it’s a drama or a comedy. Well, dramady works here.
Kim Baker (Fey) transfers from her nowhere TV news writing to the hotbed of war in Afghanistan. With WTF trying to balance between the danger and horror of the Mideast battleground and Baker’s uncertain love life, with its low-level melodrama, I was left with an empty feeling of getting neither into good order. If it weren’t for cool General Hollanek (Billy Bob Thornton), there would be few distinguishing light moments. Certainly Alfred Molina’s goofy character, Afghan Attorney General Ali Massoud Sadiq, can qualify for being embarrassingly over the top.
However, one of the better lines comes from rival reporter Tanya (Margot Robbie) when she greets Kim with the observation that “In New York, you’re like a six, seven? Here, you’re a nine — borderline 10.” Tanya’s face makes her about a 15. It’s not brilliant comedy but good enough for TV (the home of several artists on this film).
The spot-on music score is a salvation of the film. So we are left with Kim’s little dramas that rest in mediocrity while the country burns. Her affair with Scotsman Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman) seems an add-on to please the romantics in the audience. Fey is always an engaging comedian, but I’m beginning to think her best work is behind her on SNL.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
