Culch.ie

Christmas Countdown: Top 25 Movies of 2009 – No.21

So 5 days in and the list is starting to take more shape. We’ve already dispensed with the King of Pop, 1980s  nostalgia a trip to the land of Hades, and the Canada lords of rock. Number 21 is another movie that didn’t do big box-office business but should be seen by as many people as possible.

An extra-ordinary political comedy, number 21 is…

With the British Prime Minister and the US President eagerly looking for a conflict in the Middle-East, Simon Foster, the British Minister for International Development, makes an unfortunate and ill-timed remark in an interview that “war is unforeseeable”. Finding himself the poster boy for pro-war factions on both sides of the Atlantic, Foster seeks to ingrain himself with the right people in order to avoid going to war. But at home things aren’t simple, with government members keen to exploit Foster for their own agendas.

Why it’s worthy: This movie is hilarious, the laughs come hard and fast and the bumbling nature of the British is exploited to its full comedic potential. It’s also very clever indeed. The dialogue is very sharp, intelligent and witty. Armando Ianucci, moving from TV to the big screen handles the transition with aplomb. Following on his excellent series In the Thick It, this never feels like a made for TV movie. Tom Hollander plays the daft Foster exceptionally well, so well in fact that at times who’ll actually believe that he is truly out of the depth. The script is superb, satirical without ever actually naming any of the parties involved. Foul-mouthed and endlessly quotable this movie proves that clever and funny are not mutually exclusive.

Fatal flaws: As it never names the parties it stops short of being a proper dig at the Bush/Blair regime. Very few of the characters are likeable, I mean you wouldn’t want to be stuck in the same room as most of them. And many are very obvious caricatures. The pace is occasionally too fast, as the jokes are shot at you with a scatter-gun and the plot struggles to fit them all in. None of this though detract though from the sheer amusement of it all.

Verdict: Like a spiritual successor to Wag the Dog and Dr. Strangelove this is political satire at it’s very best.