Writing can move you – can draw up pure emotions, paint a portrait within your own mind, reflect the deepest emotions within oneself, can create anything – it is only limited to the words on the page, and the imagination of the author who chains the words together. Writing for film, however – it can be a challenge, as it might be brilliant, but it is also subject to the directors interpretation of the words, and how they are played out. In fact, when you look back at some past winners, in the adaptive Screenplay winners of the past, some are VASTLY different then the original product (MASH, For example: Ring Lardner, Jr. was so pissed by the final product of the film he has defamed the final edit since his first viewing of it).
At any rate: after seeing In the Loop, I really must read “The Thick of It” by Armando Iannucci.
Based off the book, “In the Loop” is a seriously farce-ical dark comedy. Serious, Dark, comedy. Not a combo you hear very often. It is like the Office (the Ricky Gervais UK version, not our bastardized US version) had hot sweaty messy sex with “Primary Colors” and this was the fetus that popped out nine months later. But what a brainchild it is! Sharp and quick, the humor can escape you if your not paying close enough attention at times, as the dialogue holds as much humor as the absurdness of all the situations the characters find themselves in. And who would have known James Gandolfini was funny? Not I. But he is. Trust me.
The basis is America is pursuing a war with an unnamed nation, and is trying to get the UK and UN to go along with the plan. Taken from the point of view of an obscure, unknown ministry member, both sides put him in the middle as their poster boy, who unwittingly tries to be as non-committal as possible.
The writing – absolute gold. The lines are classic, yet smooth. My favorite – the one I cannot get out of my head was state by James Gandolfini: “War. It is something that no one wants to go to, and once you have been there, you never really want to go back to again ever. Its a lot like France.”
Brilliant.
