Actor Christopher Abbott (Charlie from
the show “Girls) has the most poignant line in the movie “Whiskey
Tango Foxtrot.” When his young, Afghan character Fahim says, “I
was a doctor,” speaking in the past tense, it speaks volumes about
what a mess Afghanistan is. There is simply no place on earth where
it is normal for someone with medical training to be working as a
translator. The film never makes clear whether he was displaced from
his profession by the Taliban or by the American invasion. As one
injured soldier points out later in the film, if you want to start
laying blame for the state of things in Afghanistan, you'll have to
work your way through Osama bin Laden, to the Taliban, to the
Russians, and all the way back to the British Empire.
Fortunately, this film is not
constituted wholly of such serious stuff. More comedy than drama,
the movie hums with the wry humor that Tina Fey brings to all her
projects. Fey plays Kim Baker, an American journalist who,bored with
her life as a news copy writer, accepts an assignment as a foreign
correspondent in Afghanistan. There she finds that in addition to
danger, there is opportunity, both professional and sexual. As
fellow reporter Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie) explains to Kim, “In
New York, you were a 6 or a 7. Here you're a 9, maybe 9 ½.” In
addition to having her pick of men, Kim gets on-camera opportunities
that she never had back home. Reporting by day and partying by night,
Kim finds love with another reporter (Martin Freeman) and friendship
with her translator Fahim. Always, there is the danger of
kidnappings or bombs, or just the danger of getting swallowed up in a
place where the unacceptable comes to seem normal.
With poor box office and mixed
reviews, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” never seemed to find its
audience. I think people were expecting either a straight-up comedy
or a much sharper satire. Many reviewers seemed irked that the film
didn't do more with some of its serious content, such as the horrors
of war or the plight of women in the Middle East. It's true, the film
never pokes too hard at any of these targets. Rather than the
weakness of a script afraid to offend its audience, I found this to
be the strength of a personal story that didn't give in to some tidy,
preachy narrative. The film is based on the memoir “The Taliban
Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” by Kim Barker.
The story is not about discrimination or military incompetence, it's
about Kim and her own personal experience, and the biggest lesson she
learns is that you have to embrace change. She made a change when
she moved to Afghanistan, and after a few years there she realized
she needed to make a change again and move back to the U.S. It's not about setting up the perfect life, then maintaining
that. Success comes from embracing the changes that inevitably come your way,
or, as one injured veteran tells Kim, “Embrace the suck, and move
the f--- forward.”
3.5 stars out of 5
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