In the Loop

Susan Granger’s review of “In the Loop” (IFC Films)

While the underlying concept of writer/director Armando Iannucci’s geopolitical satire about the incompetence of government officials is amusing, the actors’ accents are often so undecipherable that much of the dialogue emerges as unintelligible unless you’re acutely attuned to Brit-speak. Just imagine the frustration of watching Aaron Sorkin’s brainy, rapid-fire wordplay on “The West Wing” if you didn’t understand the language.

Spun off from Iannucci’s BBC-TV series “The Thick of It” and set in London, the story revolves around a dim, doltish, low-level government minister for international development, Simon Foster (Tim Hollander), who makes an inadvertent verbal blunder alluding to an “unforeseeable war” during a radio interview. His subsequent TV ‘clarification’ is even more incendiary, noting, “To walk the road of peace, Britain must be prepared to climb the mountain of conflict,” giving the impression that Her Majesty’s government backs the U.S.’s aggressive stance in the Middle East.

Before long, the Prime Minister’s foul-mouthed, ill-mannered Director of Communications, Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), whisks hapless Simon and his twerpy advisor, Toby (Chris Addison), off to Washington, D.C. for damage control, meeting with their American counterparts, including an aggressively relentless Assistant Secretary for Diplomacy (Mimi Kennedy), her dovish aide (Anna Chlumsky), a hawkish State Department power boss (David Rasche) who’s convened a secret ‘War’ committee and a sensitive U.S. Army General (James Gandolfini) who realizes that war is a deadly business. Meanwhile, back in Blimey, Simon must cope with a disgruntled Northampton constituent (Steve Coogan) whose backyard wall is dangerously close to collapsing as the intricate political maneuverings continue at a rapid pace on both sides of the Atlantic.

To say that what unfolds is confusing is an understatement; chaotic would be more accurate. That inanity grows tiresome quickly, except for one truly inspired scene in which James Gandolfini uses a toy calculator to explain the costs of war to Mimi Kennedy while they’re hiding out in a child’s bedroom. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “In the Loop” is a cynical, profanity-laden 6. Undoubtedly, some of the outrageous rhetoric got lost whilst crossing the Pond.

06

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