Movie Review: "In the Loop"
I found "In the Loop" mildly entertaining, but thought it had too many talking heads and not enough substance.
This movie begins with the British government official (Tom Hollander) being chewed out for letting slip that war may be coming soon. The problem is that his admission only inspired some politicians in the United States to start planning for the war. While Hollander's character is going around trying to explain himself, others are already forming up committees and preparing for war. As more politicians catch wind of this, everyone starts hunting down the location of these committee meetings almost as if it were a secret club.
What you have here is a movie about various characters talking to each other. The plot is actually kind of simple once you get past all the dialogue, and it mostly turns into a bunch of scenes where characters air their differences and try to manipulate each other. At the heart of it all is a PR guy (Peter Capaldi) who helps guide the course of events through incredibly profane monologues via his cell phone.
The main reason to watch this is for the cast. It features a great collection of American and British stars, and although you may not know them by name, you will surely recognize most of the faces. You might recognize Tom Hollander from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. However, pretty much everybody knows who James Gandolfini is from The Sopranos. He plays a general who doesn't like dealing with all the politicians. Also of note is actress Mimi Kennedy, who has been in tons of movies and TV shows, but you probably will recognize her best from Dharma & Greg.
I was especially pleased to see Anna Chlumsky in a role here. She is best known for her role in My Girl and has been working steadily since then. Her love interest and rival is played by Zach Woods. He plays basically the same character in this, and it works.
This movie is credited with having four different screenwriters, plus one more for additional dialogue. Most any time you have that many writers on a project, it's often considered a bad sign. That would explain why some parts of it play almost like skits and the British style humor (long build-ups to punchlines and lots of subtle funny dialogue) prevails.
In the end, I still got some mild amusement by In the Loop, but it wasn't as smart as I expected. All the rapid-fire dialogue seemed like an attempt at some kind of Aaron Sorkin style movie, but didn't really deliver. If you like political satire, then you'll probably dig this one. Just don't expect a big comedy.