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Critics Consensus: While WTF is far from FUBAR, Tina Fey and Martin Freeman are just barely enough to overcome the picture's glib predictability and limited worldview.
Critic Consensus: While WTF is far from FUBAR, Tina Fey and Martin Freeman are just barely enough to overcome the picture's glib predictability and limited worldview.
All Critics (197) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (131) | Rotten (66)
It's a morally messy premise. Afghanistan is not Colin Firth. War is not Love Actually. And that is the problem with Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, which is overall a charming comedy about a terrible war.
The film offers a fresh look at the adrenaline-laced lifestyle of war correspondents and a timely criticism of TV news. And it delivers some laughs, too.
Writer and actress tilt between insecurity and bravado, employing dry, observational humour tinged with occasional sentimental flashes only outwardly out of character.
Tina Fey is the biggest asset but even she's not sufficient to make it worth more than a marginal recommendation and a suggestion to wait until it shows up on home video.
Tina Fey grounds the movie in something real, something urgent and human, and she nearly single-handedly saves the movie from itself. The movie itself isn't particularly serious, but she sure as hell is.
Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa move things along fast enough to keep [the problem aspects] from sinking in too deeply, and star Tina Fey holds the spotlight with aplomb.
Fey shows she can shine in her serious side. Her performance really works, allowing some of her trademark wit to come through but also providing a challenge out of her typical comfort zone.
Fey gives it her all, but she can only do so much with what she's been given.
Unfortunately, here as so many times before, Fey and her collaborators get distracted from their exploration of womanhood by a bunch of other nonsense.
Besides the on-camera talent, the biggest success comes in bite-sized moments between the reporters and the fact that we all as humans have the uncharted ability to adapt.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is sometimes entertaining, sometimes annoying, and sometimes does make us think. Even so, it's just not as deep as it wants or needs to be to hit home.
Unfortunately - much like Afghanistan and the war itself - as soon as the camera pans away, everything else is all but forgotten.
As surprising as it may be for a film about the war in Afghanistan, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot finds a remarkable balance between comedy and seriousness. Full review on filmotrope. com
Super Reviewer
Even with Tiny Fey as the protagonist, you shouldn't expect a waterfall of gags. The humor is much more subtle than we're used from her, but it's still typical Fey. The movie takes its setting very seriously, though. The story is based on real events and does not shy away from showing the ugly sides of a war. But, very much like life itself, tragedy and comedy are sometimes closer than you'd expect. The cast has a few really big names to offer and the ending is just perfect. Overall a very satisfying experience.
Tina Fey ventures outside of her comfort zone and takes us along for the ride as an all American desk jockey/news copywriter transferred to no less than Afghanistan to follow and report on our men and women on duty there. Moments of high predictability in this typical fish out of water tale are overcome by the likeability of the main players. Not bad at all.
A highly enjoyable movie which delivers comedy drama and tension all in one!
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