In the Loop

Movie: In the Loop

I saw it on: August 2, 2009

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, James Gandolfini, Anna Chumsky, Mimi Kennedy, David Rasche

Genres: Political Comedy

Synopsis: This one gets complicated.  It is basically a made-up scenario in which the U.S. convinces Great Britain go to war with them in a Middle East country.  Pretty farfetched.

Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) is a mid-level British minister.  He gets sent to the U.S. to sit in on some meetings.  His boss joins him as well as some of his staff.  The problem is that Simon is pretty clueless – but everyone in the movie seems to be clueless.  James Gandolfini is a riot as Pentagon attaché General Miller.  Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy) is a diplomat in the State Department.  David Rache plays a high-level State Department official. 

The inter-relationships are impossible to summarize briefly.  This is a movie you have to see to understand.

My two cents:  It took me about 15 minutes to start following the action.  It seems to take me that long with British movies to start understanding British style English.  Once things get rolling, it is a hysterically funny movie.  I think my favorite lines came from David Rache as the high-level State Department official.  He is going over the minutes of a meeting and realized they forgot to discuss something.  He tells his aide to add the discussion-that-never-occurred to the minutes.  The aide asks if adding things to the minutes like that is allowed.  Rache explains that minutes are not supposed to be what actually happened – that they are supposed to reflect what you wanted to happen at a meeting.

This movie has so many mini-plots and so much subterfuge going on between so many people that it makes your head spin.  The funny stuff comes so fast that it is reminiscent of Monty Python.  I can’t wait for it to come out on DVD so I can back it up when I miss something,

If you like offbeat British comedies, then don’t miss this one.  Be forewarned – there is a LOT of profanity in this movie.