In The Loop

Think of a great British TV satire of the last two decades – The Day Today, I’m Alan Partridge, Friday Night Armistice – and writer/director Armando Iannucci is likely to have been involved. In the Loop is his feature debut and springs directly from his last TV success, The Thick of It. A fan of Yes, Minister, Iannucci updated the cabinet comedy for the era of Blair, New Labour and spin. Here, he takes that notion – and many of The Thick of It’s characters and cast – for a look at the build-up to Iraq War II.

Peter Capaldi’s bile-spewing proto-Alastair Campbell, Malcolm Tucker, is the eye of this film’s desert storm (the target of the brewing war is never mentioned); Capaldi seems determined to shock and awe the audience from his first bug-eyed, foul-mouthed appearance. Tom Hollander is Tucker’s hapless ministerial target, caught up in a series of linguistic gaffes, barely aided by Chris Addison, essentially reprising his role from The Thick of It as the civil service neophyte, Toby.

A visit to Washington ratchets up the film’s ambition and the laughs. David Rasche (Burn After Reading) is excellent as a micromanaging Rumsfeldian hawk, who supposedly keeps a live grenade on his desk, while James Gandolfini is the general who doesn’t want to go to war. Iannucci perfectly captures how out of their depth the Brits are when confronted by the reality of Washington.

There’s always a risk that you lack perspective when tackling very recent history, but Iannucci’s triumph is so consummate you may want to go back to media coverage of the era with the added insight it affords. In the time of Obama, Brown and the financial crisis, war can seem a distant issue, though a laugh may help. And while In the Loop works admirably as a one-off alongside The Thick of It (you don’t need to know the series to find the film very funny indeed), whether you have to see it on the big screen – it’s made by BBC Films – may depend on how credit crunched you’re currently feeling.

Jonas Milk

Anticipation:

Dubbed by some as the best film at this year’s Sundance.

Enjoyment:

Top swearing, well done.

In Retrospect:

Or you could wait for it to come to the small screen.