Peter Capaldi’s character swears like a trooper, interweaved with some brilliantly crafted lines
advertisement
Film Review - In The Loop (15)
By Kim FrancisApril 16, 2009
In the Loop marks the cinematic debut for Armando Iannucci, one of Britain’s most highly acclaimed and influential comedy writers.
The wit behind such prized television comedy fare as I’m Alan Partridge, The Day Today and The Thick Of It, Iannucci’s In The Loop takes both the British and American governments as its subject and sends them up deliciously.
The plot centres on an impending war in the Middle East and the efforts of politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to either avert or press forward with proposed military action, depending on their perspectives.
And it’s all amid some truly astonishing ineptitude and self-serving underhand behaviour, cover-ups, deliberate and inadvertent slips of the tongue and leaking of documents…
See more film trailers on getreading.co.uk
The Loop has much to commend it. It’s reminiscent of Christopher Guest films Best In Show and A Mighty Wind as well as echoing The Office and, to a lesser extent, much-adored Will Ferrell vehicle Anchorman.
Quickfire gags and references up the laughter quotient to a similar level as Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat and you’ll find yourself having to concentrate for fear of missing out on some of the uproariously funny jokes.
A British Team America perhaps, In The Loop is a hilarious political satire. But don’t let the subject matter put you off.
Rather than delivering inaccessible highbrow humour, it sets up ludicrous characters, situations and conversations that are universally amusing and also all too real. There is even a prophetic reference to adult movie channels.
As with The Thick Of It, bad language abounds, particularly from Peter Capaldi’s character Malcolm Tucker. However, its inclusion is totally justified in that it serves to make Malcolm even funnier and more ridiculous.
The swearing is so prevalent and exaggerated that it is not only funny in itself, it also enhances the rest of the language, weaved as it is around some brilliantly-crafted wordsmith magic.
Tom Hollander, Chris Addison and Peter Capaldi in particular impress with their performances which tread a perfect line between naturalism and over-the-top spoofery and delivery is precisely on-the-money every time.
In The Loop not only merits a wide audience, it also deserves to be a smash hit.
Browse Sections
Most recent user comments 3 of 3
So many great lines: "difficult difficult, lemon difficult" "In the land of truth, the man with one fact is king." "At the end of a war you need some soldiers left, or it looks like you've lost."
21/04/2009 at 08:11 Offensive or Inappropriate?
Please let us know the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.
18/04/2009 at 13:55 Offensive or Inappropriate?
Please let us know the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.
17/04/2009 at 12:12 Offensive or Inappropriate?
Please let us know the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.