Cinemazlowski Tina Fey pulls off serious role in 'Whiskey Tango Foxtrot'

Mar 4, 2016

Sooner or later, it seems that nearly every major comedic talent wants to show at least one opportunity to show their serious side. Sometimes it's painful to watch, but in the surprisingly great new movie "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot," Tina Fey totally pulls it off.

Based on the memoir "The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan" by Kim Barker, the movie follows Fey as the somewhat fictionalized Kim Baker, a woman who's hit middle age lacking children and a truly special relationship. Baker's a news writer for a major unnamed cable news network (think CNN), but bored out of her mind and depressed with her life.

Her boss assembles single staffers at the network to beg them to head to Kabul, Afghanistan as reporters since they're hoping to avoid shaking up the lives of married people and parents. Baker jumps at the chance to shake up her life and see what she's really about, and soon she's landed in Kabul, where she's assigned an interpreter named Fahim (Christopher Abbott) and a bodyguard named Nick (Stephen Peacocke).

Fey is at first embedded amid a Marine base headed by General Hollanek (Billy Bob Thornton), who tolerates her but thinks that she's trying to showboat as a woman in the horribly anti-female society of Afghanistan.  He fears that her presence could result in an accidental tragedy by distracting the focus of his forces, as well as inspire violent reprisal from the local males and Taliban figures she encounters.

Baker also has to contend with Ali Massoud Saddiq (Alfred Molina),  who's running for election as the country's attorney general and keeps making unwanted passes at Baker whenever she asks him for access to the Taliban leaders who have taken control of much of the nation. The final piece in the puzzle of her life in the wartorn country is Scottish photojournalist Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman), who has an obvious crush on her even as she's dealing with her disgruntled New York-based boyfriend Chris (Josh Charles).

Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa ("Bad Santa," "Crazy Stupid Love") spin all these characters and plotlines perfectly, bringing the ace script by Robert Carlock (Fey's prime writing partner on her classic NBC sitcom "30 Rock") to life with a precise mix of humor, drama and surprisingly effective action moments.  Their efforts create a potent combination that makes for an insightful, compelling and nonstop entertaining ride.

"Whiskey" also offers a look at both the intriguing little details of daily life for an American in Afghanistan, and shocking glimpses of just how insanely hateful and backwards Islamic extremists like the Taliban are. Particularly effective is a riveting sequence in which Baker has to don a full-length blue burqa (dubbed "the blue prison" by Fahim) and enters the heart of Kandahar, the most terrifying province in the country for women.

The true brilliance of "Whiskey" lies in its ability to boldly shine a spotlight on the evil side of radical Islam while also finding numerous subtle ways to convey the deep concern that Farhim has for Baker. Carlock's script manages to do both while not once stooping to using heavy-handed speechifying, and also creates an unpredictability throughout that effectively conveys the feeling of what it's like to never know when a bomb will hit or a bullet will come flying at you or those you care about.

And for anyone worrying by now if this Tina Fey movie remembers to be funny, rest assured that "Whiskey" is shot through with a sharply ironic and pitch-black sense of humor. This is an impressive piece of work, built around a vibrant performance that is not afraid to show Kim as a flawed personality who drinks too much, isn't shy around a hookah and who shirks off the guilt of a one-night stand with arch sarcasm.

On a philosophical level, the movie is refreshingly free from the usual Hollywood attitude attacking the military. While it does have a couple of moments conveying the frustration of soldiers or even the general about how long the war is dragging out, it unfailingly shows both Hollanek and his troops as good-hearted people who truly want to do good for others – an attitude that pays off strongly in the film's most harrowing and affecting sequence.

Morally, "Whiskey" is a bit of a conundrum to consider. On the one hand, it has very frequent foul language throughout, so if one is prone to taking great offense at that, be forewarned. On the other hand, this is a realistic portrait of life in a dangerous, frustrating situation, and this is how many people would really talk in such a world.

The journalists who make a long term living at being embedded in Afghanistan are shown to be a hard-drinking lot, with Baker shown having severe hangovers at least twice. She also is shown smoking a hookah, implying that she's getting high, in one of three party scenes that feature rampant drunkenness among the reporters. The reporters also talk about being promiscuous, and Baker eventually engages in an affair herself – though they are shown roughly starting to undress, there is no nudity. However, there is mildly graphic talk about their sex together and she has a very casual attitude towards the relationship for a long while.

Violence-wise, the movie only has a couple of quick battle scenes, but one winds up with a tragically bloody ending that is definitely squirm-inducing albeit tastefully short.

But even with all these aspects, I truly believe that most adults can handle this movie, and that it is a fascinating and worthy consideration of the costs of war, the sacrifices made by our military and the reporters who are also endangered on the front lines.

"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" (military code slang for "WTF," a reflection of Baker's constant surprise) is above all, thoroughly human. It is unafraid to show life on the other side of the world, in a seemingly inscrutable society, as neither good nor bad, happy nor sad, downright evil or sanctimoniously perfect.  In other words, it sets a very high bar as a film that is very likely going to land on my list as one of the top films of 2016.