whiskey tango foxtrot movie review

 

I love Tina Fey.

She’s smart, down to earth and, of course, hilarious. But, when it comes to movies, I like seeing her in roles where she’s a little less funny and a little more girl next door relatable.

So I was interested in seeing Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, in which she portrays real-life journalist Kim Barker (although, for some reason, she becomes Kim Baker in the movie). The film is loosely based on Barker’s memoir, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and it’s worth seeing pretty much only for Fey.

It’s the early 2000’s when Kim – at that time a TV news writer – is called into a conference room with all the other unmarried and childless reporters because management needs a war correspondent to cover the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan.

Frustrated with her life, which seems to be going nowhere, Baker leaves her boyfriend, assuring him it will only be a temporary assignment, and heads to Kabul.

Of course, she’s not remotely prepared for what she finds there. There are a few funny Private Benjamin-like moments, when she’s reamed out for carrying an orange backpack (“Where are you going to hide it? In a fucking sunset?” yells the general played by Billy Bob Thornton.), when she holds everyone up by having to pee in the middle of a war zone, and when she’s excitedly informed by the only other female reporter (Margot Robbie) that, although she must be a 4 in looks at home, she’s a 9 in Afghanistan.

Thanks to Fey, there are also a number of scenes that have some real weight. Baker reports on the Taliban’s attack on education for women, heads into dangerous territory from the “blue prison” of her burqa and tries to take control of her own life.

Along the way, she gets sucked into the “Kabubble,” becoming addicted to the adrenaline rush of war reporting. She parties, curses, wins some, loses some and even reaches an epiphany or two. Months turn into years.

Ultimately, though – what’s really the point? Despite its potential – I wish the filmmakers had spent more time exploring Baker’s friendship with her caring and gentle translator/chaperone Fahim (Christopher Abbott) and addressing the real horrors of war rather than glossing over them for laughs – the movie’s title becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. WTF indeed.