In The Loop

In what has to be the greatest political send up since Wag the Dog, director Armando Iannucci loosely adapts characters and ideas from the British TV series "The Thick Of It" (which I've not seen but soon will) and weaves together a rapid-fire, tart-tongued tale of global government's self-importance and aggrandizing. The jokes fly fast and take no prisoners, making this a comedy surely worth rewatching as there's no way to catch each dig, jab, and retort between these childish political powerhouses.

Peter Capaldi (reprising his role from the series) stars as foul mouthed task master media consort Malcolm Tucker who flies off the handle upon hearing a sound bite from low man on the Brit gov totem pole Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) overstepping bounds with regards to a potential war in the Middle East. The sound bite, suggesting a war to be "unforeseeable," gets the inept Foster invited to committees and pushed around as an "internationalizing agent" by anti-war American official Karen Clark (Mimi Kennedy). Likewise, Clark's rival (David Rasche) coopts a sound bite of him stating we should "climb the mountain of conflict" and equally courts him to be a spokesman for the war. Foster, himself, hasn't the foggiest idea of what to do or how to behave. And as he's dragged to D.C., the UN, and everywhere his political ego wants him to be, he learns more and more the power of media to rewrite his every word . The amazing ensemble is rounded out by Anna Chlumsky as newbie aide Liza Weld, James Gandolfini as a tough-guy general, Gina McKee as the whip-smart and underrated Judy, Chris Addison as the self-involved and bumbling assistant to Foster, and Paul Higgins as the even more foul mouthed than Malcolm consort, Jamie. Steve Coogan also pops up in something of a slight cameo as an "everyman" trying to get a government wall fixed before it crushes his elderly mother's greenhouse, a complication that no character cares about in the least.

The film is truly dynamite and lightning fast, delivering hilarious, sharply scripted laughs and ultimately settling in on a surprisingly dark finale which does not alter the film's non-stop tone but simply allows for real character growth and despair. It is as smart and funny a comedy as I have seen all year.

Grade: A