Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Starring Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton

Directed by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa

The Story:
Kim Barker (Tina Fey) is a 40-something television journalist who's offered a job being a war correspondent in Afghanistan.  Upon arriving she meets fellow journalist Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie) who tells her that she's not the shrinking violet she thought she was, and in Afghanistan she can be a fully empowered woman.  She then meets Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman), a Scottish freelance photographer, who becomes close friends with her.  As her short stint turns into years, Kim finds herself again, and vows to never be satisfied with the status quo.  She goes out in the danger zone to find the story, but it seems that Tanya is having better luck than she is.  She gets overly anxious and does more dangerous things to get the story, resulting in a kidnapping and a re-evaluation of what really is "home" to her.

The Synopsis:
"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" is a true-life story of Kim Barker, author of "The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan," and it focuses on her time in Afghanistan and her desire to become someone bigger than she was.  If you're thinking of it in this respect, you wouldn't expect it to be a comedy.

Yet, that's what it ended up being.  Well, mostly comedy anyway.  When you cast legendary comedic genius Tina Fey in the lead role, you're not going to receive an Oscar-caliber film.  Sure, some comedians can produce some truly moving performances (Steve Carell in "Foxcatcher" for one), but Fey isn't one of those people.  She's a comedienne through and through, as her work in "30 Rock" and "Saturday Night Live" have proven. 

So when you take a serious topic and inject humor into it, it's like injecting lemons into a pancake.  On the outside it looks like a pancake, but when you take a bite of it, you're met with a sour surprise.  Now that might be taking it a bit too far, but that's what "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" is in a nutshell.  Typically a war movie has very little wiggle room for comedy, but that's what this film delivers.  However, it also takes the war seriously, interjecting scenes of violence and fear in between the guffaws.  It all lands in a conjointed mess leaving you wondering whether you should laugh, cry, or both.

Still, Fey delivers her comedic timing with class and style, with perfect timing as she always does, and Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton and Alfred Molina serve well as supporting cast members who play their characters to a T.  Still, in the end, the story seems to be something completely different than what it was.  There was some conflict, some issues, some problems, but there was nothing that pushed the story forward.  It ended abruptly without resolution or reason, and it felt like it hit a brick wall. 

The Summary:
Even though the story seemingly didn't go anywhere, the comedic timing of Tina Fey made the film a laugh-out-loud movie with some truly dramatic parts mixed in.

The Score: B