Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is an interesting departure for Tina Fey. The former Saturday Night Live head writer has been branching into the movies with some success. She is a very funny lady, but this movie is not particularly funny at all. It is a very serious drama with a dash of comedy sprinkled in, and this is where comedians can often shine. Since, for some reason, comedy doesn't usually bring home Oscar gold, a lot of comedians break out into drama, which is usually one of the smartest moves of their careers. I think Tina Fey will be no different. While this may not be her Oscar bait, it is a promising start to a great acting career.
The movie is based on the life of a real journalist, Kim Baker, and her experiences working in Afghanistan. Tina plays Kim with wry humor but also a real pathos. Basically, Baker gets to a point in her life and career where she is at a crossroads. She is bored with her life and all the safe choices she has made, so she asks her news director to let her become a war correspondent in Afghanistan. At first, she is a fish out of water, but quickly assimilates into her new job in both constructive and destructive ways. She finds that she becomes an action junkie and takes too many risks that get her and her news crew in trouble or danger, sometimes fatally. Add to that the fact that the journalists live like a Roman bacchanalian lifestyle full of drink, drugs and sex that further adds to the surrealism of her new life with disastrous personal effects for her.
This is one of those movies like Platoon that should not be watched by starry-eyed idealists. It deals very unflinchingly with the reality of war (albeit from a civilian perspective) and the awful status of women in Afghanistan, particularly one who wants to be taken seriously. At first, Baker abstains from the hedonistic lifestyle afforded to her, but she gradually gets sucked into the life on a downward spiral of self-destruction. Now this isn't an anti-drug movie where the character hits rock bottom before there is a moment of clarity and she changes her life. But the fact is that the war and the adrenaline highs she gets going into the field and then partying all night do take a toll on her and change her dramatically. This film was advertised as a quasi-comedy, but that is a gross over-simplification of the plot. It is a fascinating character study of someone who is irrevocably changed by war's circumstances, and it is a better movie because of it.
But what really works well in the movie is Fey herself. She anchors this slightly surreal movie in an undeniable reality. The horrors and pleasures she experiences are very real and relatable, despite how excessive they can get. No one can understand the kind of changes you go through with experiences like these unless they have been there themselves. Tina is just another example of why I think comedians make the best actors. When you think of people like Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Jaime Foxx, Rosie O'Donnell, Albert Brooks, Michael Keaton, Dan Aykroyd, Garry Shandling, Rob Reiner, Billy Crystal, Roseanne Barr, the reason they are so good at acting is because they are masters at the craft of comedy. People think comedy is easy, but it's not. To be truly great in it, you have to be hyper-aware of timing, inflection, body language and facial gestures, just like actors. But many times, comedy is just acting at an even keener state. Get one word, gesture or pause wrong, a good joke may fall flat; this is the essence of comedy. Comedians are doing the exact same things as actors, just more so. Good ones tend to easily morph into serious acting because of the discipline necessary to make a good joke. So I tend to like it when comedians branch into serious acting because if they are good, it tends to be a bit of a revelation, especially since most of them are not living, beautiful gods. They tend to be just like us, and that makes them all the more relatable.
So this movie is a very good, adult movie to see without the younger kids. It is funny and sad and everything in between. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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