Until a few years ago the Sundance Film Festival was strictly a home-grown affair, and its attempt to create a more international profile seemed optimistic. But although the event isn't anywhere near as global as Cannes, Sundance is starting to adopt a more cosmopolitan feel — and the British are the first to feel the benefit.
Building on last year's breakthrough, when a record number of British productions were screened, the 2009 festival is presenting a film that not only stands out in the Sundance selection, it might even be the best British film of the year. Written and directed by Armando Iannucci, In the Loop is the big-screen sisterpiece to his recent political TV series The Thick of It, which married the deadpan, old-school-tie satire of Yes Minister with the edgy laughs of The Office.
But although that formula could be seen as derivative and perhaps even inevitable in today's cynical world, the results are anything but. Like its small-screen sibling, this stark, foul-mouthed black comedy is an artfully written skit that combines pin-sharp characterisation with brutally effective one-liners.
There are no heroes, as such, in this world. Instead, the focus is the hapless Simon Foster (played by Tom Hollander), the fictional Secretary of State for International Development. Foster's political destiny is sealed from the start when, during an interview with BBC Radio, he is asked about the likelihood of war in the Middle East. He replies that the possibility of war is “unforeseeable”.
This casual comment will result in Foster becoming a political piggy in the middle, a pawn in a game that, though farcical, chimes uncomfortably with recent events.
His apparent pacifism is seized on by Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy), a Washington diplomat who, together with the pacifist General Miller (James Gandolfini), is involved in a battle with US hawks intent on picking a fight with the Middle East. Foster is flattered, but despite pressure from the acid-tongued UK spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), he decides to play both ends against the middle. The result is a classic British comedy reminiscent of the very best of old Ealing, a morality play in which the upper and lower classes clash, thinking that they're both above the Americans and their vulgarity, while achieving little except a pathetic show of vanity.
It's hard to settle on a standout element because it's all so outstanding, from the performances to the one-liners to the plot, which climaxes with a bathetic twist that seems chillingly possible in today's dog-eat-dog climate. But maybe the best thing about this hilarious, superb, black comedy is its use of language, veering from elaborate schoolboy profanity to exquisite wordplay and sublime parody of government doublethink. The latter is perfectly embodied in a climactic exchange between Tucker and Foster. “Whether it happened or not,” hisses an irate Tucker, “it's true.”