Movie Reaction: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Formula: (Our Brand is Crisis + I Love Trouble) * Wild  / Tropic Thunder

Who hasn't felt like his or her life is in a rut sometimes? Most of us just get a haircut, start dating someone new, or maybe go on a weekend road trip to shake out of it. In Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Kim Baker, played by Tina Fey, decides to take a job on the other side of the world in the middle of a war zone. Some would call this an overreaction. She would call it her only option. That is the inciting decision the begins a charmingly uneven movie.

I'm a hug fan of Tina Fey. Between 30 Rock, SNL, Mean Girls, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, I think she is one of the best comedy writers and producers around. As an actress, she has a limited range in which she is excellent. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, or WTF for short, fits perfectly within her range. Kim Baker isn't more than a step removed from "Liz Lemon goes to Kabul". I'm completely fine with that. Written by frequent Fey collaborator Robert Carlock, WTF plays to all of her strengths. It's full of self-effacing jokes, funny sounding-swearing, and quiet, sincere moments. Above anything, this is a movie for fans of Tina Fey.

She's not alone though. She's surrounded by a wonderful cast. Margot Robbie and Martin Freeman are fellow journalists (non-Americans. Yay accents!), Christopher Abbott is her interpreter, Billy Bob Thornton is a general for the Marines, and Alfred Molina is an Afghan diplomat. Robbie isn't used as much as I'd hoped and disappears toward the end. Martin is solid. The only unfortunate part is that I kept thinking of Michael Sheen as Wesley from 30 Rock every time I saw him. They're oddly similar roles.

WTF is filled with great moments and the individual adventures are quite satisfying. It runs into the problem a lot of movies based on a more or less regular person's life have. It's a collection of short stories that lacks a real narrative spine. That's not a bad thing exactly, but it makes for tough pacing. I rarely could tell what was driving the story forward. Doing it no favors is the abruptness of Baker's decision to go to Kabul. There's only a few internalized scenes at the beginning before she's off to Kabul. The film attempt to explain her mindset later on, but a lot is lost at the beginning by not knowing who she is sooner. When she arrives in Kabul, I felt like I was following a stranger in a strange place, when I'm pretty sure I was meant to be experiencing this strange place along with her.

(Elephant in the Room) I don't know how to categorize this movie. It's certainly being advertised as a comedy and is very funny at times. Then whenever things get too silly, something real happens. The romance feels more authentic because of the actors than the story. The closest I've come to identifying this is it's "characters from a comedy put in the world of a drama, with irony removed". So, Tropic Thunder without the meta humor.

I wanted to love Whiskey Tango Foxtrot more than it let me. It keeps the audience distanced. I never felt as close to Fey's character as I did to, say Reese Witherspoon's in Wild. Tina Fey is wonderful in her assorted adventures though, and that's all this movie needs to consider it a success.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend