In the Loop

Politicians masquerading as clueless buffoons in satirical entertainment is a well-explored idea, but In the Loop, the hilarious new comedy about a handful of British and American politicians attempting to navigate the moral complexities of a potentially impending war, takes a brave and rather brilliant step forward. It supposes that each of those buffoonish beings is actually a real person, as opposed to a lifeless caricature upon which various winking jokes are hung. Many past attempts at such satire may have made comedic hat racks out of their characters, but In the Loop gives us believable people in believable situations with a viciously acidic twist.

This attempt to colourfully combine comedy and politics is brought to vivid life due to a cast that is overrun with crackling talent. On both sides of the Atlantic, politicians are expertly skewered with nary an overwrought wink in the bunch. Peter Capaldi steals the show as Malcolm Tucker, the British Prime Minister's Director of Communications, a man who throbs with passionate anger and employs every breath as a fountain of foul language.

Malcolm's constant cursing is directed at anyone who gets in his way and it is an incredible credit to Capaldi's performance that Malcolm remains an arresting figure for the entire duration of the movie. Instead of being desensitized to his raving rants and dismissing him as a one-note jerk, I found myself drawn to Malcolm, eagerly anticipating what destructive insult would next spill from his lips. Capaldi contains enough big-screen charisma to carry the movie on his own, but thanks to his fellow cast members, he doesn't have to.

Tom Hollander, so often glimpsed in period costumes for movies like Pride & Prejudice and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, plays Simon Foster, a British Cabinet Minister who is very good at getting himself in trouble and nearly terrible at everything else. Simon's damaging slips of the tongue during interviews greatly anger Malcolm, who ups his insult quotient to illustrate how frustrated he is with Simon's apparent inability to do his job. Hollander delivers a fantastic performance that constantly flirts with the idea of a clueless clown, while always remaining acceptably grounded in reality.

Thrown into this toxic mix are a newly hired advisor named Toby (Chris Addison), who quickly embarks on a torrid journey, and Simon's own Director of Communications, a strong-willed woman named Judy (Gina McKee), who knows how to hold her own in the presence of venom-spewing Malcolm. A whole slew of other characters who hail from Washington patiently await their narrative entry point, such as a peace-advocating military general (James Gandolfini) and the hard-nosed Assistant Secretary for Diplomacy Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy), whose search for the truth surrounding the potential unnamed war helps forward one half of the Atlantic-spanning plot.

There are still so many more characters who brighten In the Loop with their zany traits and attitudes, so even my lengthy list of memorable people mentioned above does not fully cover the fresh faces that populate this wonderfully executed movie. At every twist and turn, the characters zig and zag with hilariously effective agility and each new addition to the cast hurries to catch up with the already established characters. To witness so many performers firing off such delectable dialogue as if it were deadly ammunition is a hugely entertaining experience that easily solidifies In the Loop as one of the funniest movies of the year.

The entire cast is given so much to work with because the meaty script, credited to Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Ian Martin, Tony Roche, and Armando Iannucci, who doubles as the director, is supremely stuffed with imagination and knowledge. Not only are the characters beautifully written, each with their own distinctive personality, but even the plot manages to be a huge success, always bordering reality with razor-sharp focus. The infinite details of the political game unfolding before our eyes are never abandoned in favour of something more simplistic, nor are they knotted to the point of needless convolution.

In the Loop is a frantically energized political satire that actually invests time in its characters and therefore takes on a life of its own. The jokes routinely hit their mark and the marriage of cast and script produces something hugely original and wonderfully unforgettable. The world is rampant with political satire nowadays, but In the Loop stands out as something unique. With its crazed collection of carefully constructed characters, it offers grand hilarity at ground level, where we can survey the simmering political climate with eyes wide open and laughter on our lips.