The Big Watch #2: In The Loop

“It’ll be easy peasy lemon squeezy.” “No it’ll be difficult, difficult, lemon difficult.”

Onto our second film review!

Next, I am reviewing the film ‘In The Loop’. This is a political satire, based on a BBC series called ‘The Thick Of It’, both of which come from the mind of writer Armando Iannucci. This is something of an odd beast for those of us familiar with the TV show, which focused around British MPs in both the Labour and Conservative parties, and the advisers surrounding them. Here, oddly, we have a few of those old characters, but we also have actors who were in the TV series who are playing different characters in the movie. Obviously this is a boon for those not familiar with the TV series, but it is a tad disorientating to those expecting to be in exactly the same world with the same characters as before.

The film instead focuses on the relationship between the people within the British and American governments and whether a war will soon be started by them in the Middle East. It particularly focuses on an MP called Simon Foster, played by Tom Hollander, who is thrown from a relatively low position in the British government right into the centre of this debate.

What Iannucci is so good at creating in his direction are absolutely surreal moments in this serious political world. A particularly brilliant moment is when an American General and politician meet at a house party and sneak off to discuss the war: they end up sitting in a child’s bedroom, working out troop numbers on a child’s calculator which sings out the numbers. These sublimely surreal moments brighten what can be a tough genre to work with.

What political satire can be particularly good at is wordplay and mockery. ‘Yes Minister’, an 80s TV series, was particularly brilliant at this, full of tongue twisters and ridiculous red tape. ‘The Thick Of It’ did have a similar vein to it, although the main star has to be the character Malcolm Tucker, played by Peter Capaldi, who takes swearing and insults to new levels! The film suffers a bit here. Although Malcolm Tucker returns in the film, the dialogue doesn’t always quite have the same snap and fizz as the TV series does. I think the problem here is the sheer amount of characters- in a series it isn’t a problem, because you have more time to give to each person, but here it sometimes feels like we have to focus on the plot and whole ensemble and so lose time with each character.

This is not a cheery film by any stretch (by which I mean there are no fake happy endings). The bad people don’t lose and the good people don’t win, but that is in the film’s favour rather than a negative point.

To summarise, this is a very good film (although as with the series, not one for those who don’t like swearing. Seriously.) I do think on balance if this is your style of comedy and you have more time to spend, I think the TV series is better. However this gives you a good taste of Iannucci’s world and provides a very funny glimpse into the murky backstabbing world of politics.

7/10

The Big Watch #1: The Tree of Life

The Big Watch is very similar to my other project, The Big Read. By December 2012 I will have watched and reviewed 50 films or TV shows on here (if it's a TV show, it must be a full season of a show), again to encourage me to watch the things I never get round to seeing. So kicking it off, 'The Tree of Life'...

I was desperate to see 'The Tree of Life' because of the trailer. It looked mindblowing. I thought it might have some similarities to my favourite film of all time, 'The Fountain'. The film aimed to "chronicle the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man's childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed with imagery of the origins of the universe and the inception of life on Earth."

I wasn't sure what I thought of this really. As a piece of art, it was unbelievable. Every shot could have been framed as a wall print, it was so sumptuous. There were some interesting ideas in there, mainly the idea of 'the way of nature vs the way of grace' which came from the differing parenting styles of the characters played by Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain. The title played the two ideas off against each other, being the tree from the Garden of Eden (the way of grace) and simultaneously the tree representing the evolutionary chain (the way of nature), which I found really interesting, as I sometimes struggle to balance my views as a Christian with my beliefs in science and evolution. The central section, following the family growing up, was lovely, filled with those tiny moments that slip us by too quickly, like the children chasing each other round the garden at dusk.

The main problem was the story. The closest I could get to the overall idea was that it was similar to the end of 'American Beauty', where the main character's life flashes before him just before he dies. That was the only way I could connect the elements of the story of the universe, the grown up main character (Sean Penn) and his memories of his family growing up. It all felt a bit lost at some points though, and I could hear people in the audience with me saying afterwards that they didn't really get it. It was also too long; at 138 minutes, it could have easily lost half an hour without suffering.

For producing a piece of art, I worship Terrence Malick's directorial eye. But unlike with 'The Fountain', I didn't fall in love with this. I came out loving moments, but found that as an overall film it was too fragmented and unclear, and that the story needed tightening up. It would be interesting to see it again to see whether it becomes clearer on a second viewing though.

10/10 for beauty, 6/10 for story. 7.5/10 overall.

I believe this has now finished showing at most cinemas, but will be out on DVD at some point.