'Whisky Tango Foxtrot' - Tina Fey goes to Afganistan

Tina Fey is journalist Kim Baker who wrote the memoir: 'The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan', which details Baker's years as an embedded reporter in the worn torn countries. When the book was originally release, several reviews cited their vision of Fey as Baker; quoting they felt the book was written with Fey in mind. Fey heard of this, read the book and immediately optioned it.  Scripted by long time creative partner Robert Carlock (30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and directed by Fey collaborators Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love), 'Whisky Tango Foxtrot' has some great Fey moments but fails to live up to what could have been a deep and dark dramedy.

Kim Baker (Tina Fey) is a news reporter stuck in a rut, 40 and trapped in a going no where relationship when she volunteers to take a 3 month assignment in the war torn (and forgotten) Kabul.  The early part of the story, where Baker is the 'fish out of water' American, plays well to the snarky type humor that Fey is so famous for. Nearly everything she tries to do as a politically correct American cause some type of insult or harm to her co-workers and the Islamic culture.  Once the movie starts into the 2nd act though, Fey seems to stumble a bit, in this case Fey is the fish out of her acting waters.

Kim is befriended by another female reporter played by Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wallstreet), the two play off each other well, but then become rivals in a rather predictable turn of the tale. Kim also meets a crass Scottish reporter played by the fantastic Martin Freeman (the Hobbit Trilogy most recently) and while the verbal play between them is excellent, the romantic chemistry is not. Fey, by far, is one of this generations greatest female comedians, but she still has a way to go in the drama department.

Now don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad film by far; but it tries far too hard to be too many things in the hopes of being something good.  I kept waiting for the MASH theme to start playing and for some of the dramatic, dark, funny and poignant MASH humor to settle in. 'Whisky Tango Foxtrot' had the chance to become something like MASH but failed to deliver. It's a 3 star film that could have been a 4 star one with a little more effort and perhaps a different lead actress.