Review: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Loosely based on Kim Hunter's memoir The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (military-alphabet-speak for WTF) stars Tina Fey as Kim Baker, a general producer who writes news copy who decides to break her personal and professional inertia by embedding herself as a television news reporter in Afghanistan. It's a little Eat Pray Love by way of Zero Dark Thirty, and if one thinks that ought not to work, then pat yourself on the back for this seriocomic fish-out-of-water tale really strives to find narrative traction and tonal consistency despite a very good lead performance from Fey.
Childless and unmarried, Kim is a prime candidate for the three-month stint in Kabul. She does have a boyfriend (Josh Charles), but it obviously says something about the state of her mind about their relationship that she would up sticks and plunge herself in the Kabubble, the world comprised of fellow journalists, crewmen, security guards, and local fixers and translators, most of whom offset the dangers of their profession by partying hard. Take hot to trot bombshell and rival reporter Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie), who immediately takes Kim aside to ask if she can sleep with Kim's security team. Tanya also informs Kim that, here in Afghanistan, she is a "serious piece of ass," a borderline 9 compared to the 4 or 5 she would have rated back in the States, so she should take advantage, boyfriend or no boyfriend. Oh, and under no circumstances should Kim fall for the charms of and sleep with Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman), an amorous freelance photographer whose Scottish brogue distracts from his often rude behaviour.
Naturally Kim and Iain fall into bed despite their barbed banter. Just as naturally, Kim will make one mistake after another before proving her mettle to General Hollanek and his team of Marines when she jumps into the fray of a firefight, camera in hand, despite the protests of her local guide Fahim (Christopher Abbott), who later warns her of getting too addicted to perilous situations - that's how mistakes are made and people get hurt. The professional relationship between Kim and Fahim is arguably the most interesting in the movie, primarily due to Abbott's endearing and excellent performance and secondarily because, despite the whitewashing of the casting, their cultural differences fuel their mutual respect for one another.
If screenwriter Robert Carlock had focused on Kim and Fahim's rapport, or Kim's determination to report more women-centric stories rather than the ones the network brass keep wanting her to do, or even how a little bit of grit goes a long way in any modern profession, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot might have made for more engaging viewing. Instead, the whole enterprise feels meandering and noncommittal. And what were directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa thinking when they decided to score a rescue operation to the tune of "Without You"? It just seems like such a boneheaded choice, and it's moments like that which typify the film's uninvested stance in the story or stories it's trying to tell.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Directed by: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Written by: Robert Carlock; based on the memoir The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Kim Hunter
Starring: Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, Christopher Abbott, Billy Bob Thornton, Nicholas Braun, Stephen Peacocke, Josh Charles, Cherry Jones
