Tina Fey’s new movie Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is based on The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the memoir by American international journalist Kim Barker about her experiences in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We follow Kim Barker as she arrives in Kabul, knowing nothing of the world outside of America. We see her stories about Islamic militants and shaky reconstruction efforts, which were soon overshadowed by the bigger news in Iraq. This is a darkly comic, real-life look at the absurdities and tragedies of the “forgotten war,” finding both humor and humanity.
Once Barker lands in Kabul she’s a fish out of water, having no knowledge of what the war is about and how to survive in these new lands. She begins living in the media house, where all war correspondent reside. Within its walls are the journalists that live and thrive on war journalism: crazy, adrenaline surging, hard drinking people on the edge of life and death every day. Barker left her simple life and jumped headfirst into this bizarre new world, where nothing is “normal.” This is her wonderful and beautiful story.
She’s wonderfully played by Tina Fey, who I hope is remembered next year for Oscar nominations. Fey is brilliant in this role. She’s very believable as this 40-something woman on her own, willing to give up everything to find what she’s missing. That’s not a shot at Fey; she is perfectly realistic in those roles, and this is another great example of that. When we first see her in New York she is a woman feeling stagnant in life and career. She is given an opportunity to live abroad and report on the war. She takes this chance and leaves all she knows behind, a thing only a few people would ever do.
Once in Kabul her world is turned upside down, not only due to being a woman living in a part of the world where woman have no say, but also as a a journalist who doesn’t understand her media counterparts or the military that seems be there without a reason. As the movie moves forward we see her begin to understand and learn to maneuver in this world she now calls home.
Along the way she encounters several outlandish characters: Margot Robbie, a British reporter; Martin Freeman, a photojournalist from Scotland; Nick Braun, her cameraman; Christopher Abbott, her driver/ interpreter; and Billy Bob Thornton as the military general watching over this area. Each gives an Oscar worthy performance. Each adds taste to an already tasty movie.
Robbie starts out as a friend, but they soon move into a “friendenemy” situation. Being strong women and the only two in the house the movie focuses on, each begins to try to outdo one another, leading Robbie into a dangerous situation of her own making. This isn’t a big part of the plot, but important because it gives Barker some serious scenes to think about what she’s doing. All the journalists are trying to outdo one another and find the next best story in a place the world simply doesn’t care about anymore. The war has moved on to bigger and better places, so Kabul becomes yesterday’s news.
Barker begins a relationship with photojournalist Iain MacKelpie, delightfully played by Martin Freeman. Their relationship begins as something that just happens in a house where many people are, but soon turns into something more. This movie isn’t a love story, this is just one thing that happens to Barker while she’s there. But it’s such an important part of the story when Iain is kidnapped, as she does everything she can to get him back to safety, because it’s the right thing to do and it could help her career.
All the characters in the movie are out for themselves to a degree. Each is competing for the next best story. It’s such a strange situation they find themselves in, personal boundaries and ethics go right out the door. Not in a bad way per say, but just human nature. Each gets desensitized to the atrocities that surround them every day. It’s a peek inside the human mind when we begin to get used to things that are clearly wrong, which is where Barker finds herself towards the end of the movie when she realizes she needs to leave before this kind of life become “normal.”
Fey’s character of Kim Barker is wonderful portrayal of a successful woman living and dealing with life or death situations every day that most people will never understand. Human nature is a tricky thing, and seeing it portrayed well is always eye opening. This is an interesting and strangely beautiful movie of what goes on in the lives of people who choose this nomadic lifestyle.