by paulie1975

Created on: December 03, 2010   Last Updated: December 04, 2010

In the Loop is a feature film, created by the team behind the BBC2 political satire 'The Thick of It', directed by Armando Ianucci and starring Peter Capaldi as the inestimable Malcolm Tucker, this is definitely the best British comedy in many years, but then I guess the closest competition has been Kevin and Perry go Large, Alien Autopsy with Ant and Dec or Lesbian Vampire Killers.

It's hard to summarise the plot of In the Loop, in essence, a potential war is brewing between the UK, America and a middle eastern country, the British Home Secretary, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) makes an inopportune statement on the radio explaining that in his view the war is 'unforseeable' his words are twisted by the media and upset the governments main adviser/Spin Doctor, Malcolm Campbell (Coogan is funny as a local constituent of Foster's, whose mother's wall is next to the ministers constituency office, damage to the wall means possible bad press for Foster and as Coogan's character is fobbed off regularly its inevitable that at some point something will give, but will it be the wall?

 The film is a huge success, whilst it lacks some of the current relevance of The Thick of It, it does a real job on the Iraq War, using its tale to warn against the power of spin and advisors to take normal negotiations to heightened, almost frenzied levels as people compete to improve their careers through leaks, smears and back stabbing, it's a hideous and yet hilarious atmosphere, the camerawork follows the familiar fast paced handheld atmosphere of the series and this works to create a disjointed rushed feeling which fits with the acting and superb script, the script is the key to this film, utterly convincing and totally hilarious the one liners are outstanding and the profanity levels are so high that this film has had huge publicity for it, the swearing is generally relevant although at times its gratuitous...but in a funny way.

In some ways, it reminded me of the Peter Sellers film 'Being There' a Savant being hailed more for what he doesn't say than what he does and I think that was the general parable behind this biting satire, I thought this film was well written, well paced and utterly believable whilst being ridiculous to the level of parody.

The language is choice, especially from the director of spin, Malcolm Tucker and the cultural references fly thick and fast.  For me, this is an intelligent fast paced comedy that should appeal on both sides of the Atlantic as it is relevant, very funny and offers a sharp and at times cutting view of the 'Special Relationship'.

I enjoyed the film immensely, whilst it is not quite to the level of the TV series, it gave a more global feel to the writing and the comedy was not affected by this, its intelligent, well put together, fast paced and fun, the acting is excellent and the script wonderful, there should be more films like this which challenge viewers and don't feel the need to have to explain everything for fear of being too clever, this is top quality comedy and i'm happy that people on both sides of the Atlantic had the intelligence and good taste to enjoy this film so much.

Learn more about this author, paulie1975.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.