Loosely based on a novel by a US war zone correspondent, this film stars Tina Fey as said correspondent Kim Baker who escapes her mundane journalism job in the States to take up a TV reporter gig in Afghanistan.
I'm a big fan of Fey and frankly I'd watch her read the dictionary, but this film is only good and not great.
Whisky Tango Foxtrot doesn't know if it's a comedy or a drama and this confusion means it never quite lands well in either camp. There's a few moments that I think are meant to be poignant but some people in the preview I was at laughed. The jaunty soundtrack also contributes to the uncertainty.
It also stars Martin Freeman and Margot Robbie as other journalists in the 'Kabubble' - what they call the expat bubble they inhabit in Kabul. Margot Robbie plays a British TV journalist and I don't know why they didn't just make her Australian since she didn't really nail the accent.
Billy Bob Thornton is perfect as a US military commander, Aussie Stephen Peakcocke is good as a security hunk but in a curious piece of casting American actor Christopher Abbott, best known from playing Marnie's boyfriend in the first season or two of the TV show Girls, plays Fahim, Kim's Afghani fixer. It's not that his performance was bad, just that I kept being distracted by what a strange choice it was.
More on the story in this three and a half star review in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Trailer here. In cinemas now.