Movie Review: "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot"

"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot": B.  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a coming of age movie, but not of the sort usually given that description.  Kim Baker (Tina Fey) works for a big city news organization, mostly writing copy for the on-air "talent."  It is boring and ungratifying work.  In the age of nascent social media and instant notification of newsworthy events, the trend for the public's reliance on newspapers is dwindling, and local news is mere filler in between more important national and international stories.  As this revelation is occurring to Baker, she sees Tanya Vanderpoel (sexy Margot Robbie), a beautiful Australian war correspondent, giving a battlefront report from Afghanistan on live network television.  Baker envies Vanderpoel's status as a revered journalist, and within a few scenes, Baker has become an embedded reporter with the US Marines in Kandahar Province.  This new career will be the exact opposite of the boring yet safe occupation she left behind.

Baker is naive as she starts this new chapter in her life.  She does not speak the local language and has to be tutored regarding religious proprieties.  Vanderpoel, who is simultaneously Baker's friend and occupational rival, takes the rookie under her wing, telling the new arrival that back in the States she (Baker) might only be "a six or a seven," but in Afghanistan she's a "Kabul Cutie."  In other words, be on your guard around men.

Marine Corps General Hollanek (Billy Bob Thornton) is a difficult man to impress.  If it were up to him there would be no embedded journalists accompanying his troops.  They mostly get in the way of his men, and God forbid a journalist should be killed or wounded on his watch.  But the Corps is willing to put up with the intrusion because of the upside potential of good publicity making the airwaves back home.  Notwithstanding Hollanek's reservations, from the first combat mission on which Baker rides along her bravery in the line of fire impresses the grizzled Marine.  She is there to report on the firefights, not just their aftermath.

Before too long, life in the war torn desert country becomes the new norm for Baker.  She catches herself referring to Kabul as her home, and what started out as a temporary assignment turns into a three year sojourn.  There is little she misses about the life she once knew, including her boyfriend Chris (Josh Charles).  In front of the camera Baker covers life and death.  Behind the scenes out of the public's view are wild parties and one night stands.  She and her friends work hard and play even harder.

The script is guilty of presenting a few too many redundant scenes, but one which stands out positively shows how Baker is able to gain the trust of the women in a small village where General Hollanek's men are repairing, for the third or fourth time, a water well.  Hollanek is puzzled regarding the cause of the well's repeated damage.  Baker advises the general that the women themselves confided to her that they intentionally sabotaged the well so that they would have an excuse to get their water from the nearby river, thus providing an opportunity to socialize out of earshot of the local men.

The unsung hero in Baker's story is her Afghan "fixer," Fahim (Christopher Abbott).  He mentors her as she tries to assimilate the local customs and culture, a challenge even for a man to undertake and exponentially more difficult for a woman.  Fahim also bravely pulls Baker away when she foolishly attempts to photograph covertly a radical Muslim who is preaching to an angry crowd.  Of the male characters in the film, he is the only likable one.  The story lines involving Scottish photographer Iain Mac Kelpie (Martin Freeman) and Afghan attorney Ali Massoud Sadiq (Alfred Molina), both of whom have sexual conquest on the brain, are ridiculously absurd and count as negative check marks on my report card.  At least they provide a laugh or two.

I was impressed with Fey's acting performance in the predominately serious role.  I was a little worried that every time I saw her on screen I would have difficulty erasing Sarah Palin from my thoughts.  (A similar problem occurs in other movies when I see Steve Carell onscreen and flash back to his Michael Scott character from The Office.)  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a film which mixes drama and comedy while delivering a message that war is never the answer.  It is not in the same league with the incomparable satire MASH, but few movies, regardless of genre, are.