Whiskey Tango Foxtrot draws considerable laughs
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is actress and comedian Tina Fey’s newest flick about an adventure-seeking journalist trying to make a difference in Afghanistan. With famed television mogul Lorne Michaels serving as producer and a cast of A-listers, WTF should be a slam dunk, and it is — sort of. The biggest issue is that WTF doesn’t know what it is. Is it a satire on war films? Is it a drama chronicling a journalist’s actual experiences? Or is it a cliché female-led comedy? It’s a tough call because the film doesn’t know the answer either. Fey’s performance yo-yos so much that the audience feels a little motion sick by the ending. It’s as if no matter what Fey does, even talking to a vet with his legs blown off, she always seems to be acting in an Saturday Night Live sketch.
A good question to now ask is what is WTF even about: Fey plays Kim Baker — based off real-life journalist Kim Barker whose memoir, The Taliban Shuffle ,inspired the making of the film — the typical middle-aged-no-husband-no-kid-workaholic-woman-with-a-crappy-desk-job story. The film is set in 2003, and every news station wants a reporter in Afghanistan. Kim is bumped from copy editing to war correspondent. She quickly calls her “mildly-depressive” boyfriend to say she’ll be gone for three months and leaves for Afghanistan, no biggie. After a tearful 15-second scene of not feeling like she can handle it, Kim totally finds her groove. That three months eventually turns into three years. Kim finds not just best friends at her base in “the Stan” but also an exciting job worth sacrificing everything for.
Luckily the film has two things going for it — humor and a story. The only question people ask before they see a Fey movie is “Is it funny?” Yes, the film is funny. Not every joke or gag lands, but for the most part the audience was hysterically laughing. The story also works — WTF isn’t a cheap thrill. Screenwriter Robert Carlock packs in some meat as well, though it drags at some points.
Fey plays Kim with hilarious honesty that carries the film — no question. She doesn’t try to make the audience love her character; she tries to make the audience see themselves in her shoes. Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman) comes into Kim’s life as the Scottish freelance photographer who waits as long as it takes for her and her boyfriend to break up. Alfred Molina (a surprising casting choice) shows off his comedic chops as the attorney general of Afghanistan. While Molina and Freeman are two audience favorites — how could they not be? — Margot Robbie steals every scene as Kim’s fellow war correspondent and rival, Tanya. Besides the fact that Kim gets the most interesting storyline, Tanya gets the funniest jokes.
Kim’s life is now full of interesting people, and she begins to question why she plans to go back home to New York at all. Kim stands out because she is one of the most realistic characters brought to life on the big screen. She’s neither the heroine nor anti-heroine, but rather an incredibly normal woman, who makes good and bad decisions, that is brave enough to do something about her lot in life. The film boasts of laughs most of the time, but there’s a real heart beating in its chest.