The simplest way to describe the latest entry into the Tina Fey cinematic canon is “mis-advertised.”
Judging by its title, one would assume that “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” is a full-on war comedy, in the vein of “Top Secret” or movies of the sort. But it leans much more toward drama than its trailers or the people behind it would indicate.
Produced by longtime Saturday Night Live show-runner Lorne Michaels and written by Fey’s longtime partner Robert Carlock, the surprising lack of winking artifice throughout large swathes of the movie begins to come off the wrong way by the end of the film.
“Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” based on “The Taliban Shuffle” by Kim Barker, follows Fey as the similarly-named Kim Baker as she leaves her unremarkable New York life writing news copy to be a field reporter in Kabul, Afghanistan.
It’s clear the film means well, referring to Afghanistan as “the forgotten war,” — a not untrue assessment of the war’s profile in the mid-2000s. But the film ostensibly presents itself as a satire, and a satire needs to be targeted at something. The big issue with “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” is that it can’t figure out who or what it wants to skewer.
While Fey finally gets to play a character in a movie with some measure of complexity, a nice departure from her usually shallow fare, the story eventually devolves into the “middle-aged white woman leaves her unremarkable life to find herself” plot line.
When she first arrives in Kabul and meets a fellow war correspondent Tanya Vanderpoel, played by the ineffable Margot Robbie, she learns that she is perceived as far more attractive in Kabul than back in New York.
Despite her newfound confidence in her appearance, for the first part of the film, Baker resists the urge to pursue a Kabul relationship herself, thanks to the existence of her “mildly depressive” boyfriend.
But then, what is presumed to be a wartime satire devolves into a standard romantic comedy, with all of the pitfalls that come along with it. Her love interest is played by a dashingly talkative Martin Freeman, and while the chemistry between them is excellent, it makes the audience question what this film is actually about.
For all its noble talk about “the forgotten war,” “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” cannot bring itself to really sink its teeth into the meaty subject matter before it. What could have been a potent, biting satire about American involvement in Afghanistan becomes a confused mess. It’s not a bad movie, but it is definitely frustrating to see so much wasted potential on screen.
Fey is better than this. “30 Rock” was a comedy goldmine, and while it was nice to see her attempt to wrap some serious acting into her catalogue, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” was a bit of a misfire.
