You definitely want to be: In the Loop

As a wannabe screenwriter, I’ve read scripts - a lot of scripts. And sometimes, the written word is “more alive” than what I eventually see on the screen (if not completely different due to the many changes a screenplay goes through until it’s finally produced). As one reads, a mental picture is being produced; yours could be completely different from mine. And if that “image” doesn’t translate well to the big screen, I’m a bit disappointed. Unfortunately, this happens far too often.

So, perusing through SimplyScripts.com’s comedy section one day, I came across a script I was unfamiliar with titled “In the Loop,” written and directed by Armando Ianucci. (There are additional writing credits). Ianucci’s an English bloke, and what I read that day was respectable. Not expecting much, I rented the video – and couldn’t stop laughing.

In the Loop, released in 2009, is a nonstop, scathing satire about British and U.S. politicians, and all the back-stabbing, insecurities, power struggles, fabrications, ineptitude and down right obtuseness that one could imagine actually happening in “real life” politics, as the two countries attempt to come to a conclusion about invading a fictional county in the Middle East. (Basically, should we invade Iraq?)

It all kicks off when Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), England’s bumbling idiot Minister of International Development, blurts out that war is “unforeseeable.” This little blunder (which happens about 5 minutes into the film), sets off a chain of events that are so hilarious, it’s impossible to summarize them all in one article. I’m just going to say, if you watch the film, you’ll never think of: Meat, meet, Canadians, diarrhea, France, The U.N., shark documentaries, Brokeback Mountain, and the curse word f “star-star” k again.

The movie boasts an ensemble cast including Tom Hollander, a scathing Peter Capaldi (you DO NOT want to work for this guy), Mimi Kennedy, Anna Chlumsky, Gina McKee, David Rasche, and James Gandolfini as Lt. Gen. George Miller. The acting is superb by all, but Hollander and Gandolfini steal the show. There’s a scene that takes place in a messy, four-year-old girl’s bedroom where Gandolfini is explaining to Kennedy how many troops the U.S. has to deploy by adding them up on a calculator that resembles a frog, or something, and the contraption emits these adolescent dins similar to a drunken Baby Alive doll. It’s one of the most ironic and funniest scenes I’ve ever witnessed.

The writing is superb, and the one-liners jump at you like a tiger and hit with as much force. It’s shot in a documentary style reminiscent of “The Office,” which adds to the feeling that the viewer is actually watching authentic situations take place.

In the Loop is not in the league of Dr. Strangelove, but I don’t think they were going for that tone. The tone here is fast and furious, and it all comes together like a Bellini opera.

I give it five beers out of a six pack. I pulled one beer out because if you do rent this movie, tell the kids to scram. There are more F bombs dropped than actual bombs the Allies dropped on Germany.