It takes a special kind of person to see a hotspot of war, corruption and desperation and say, with a cavalier smile: “Yeah, I wanna to be there.”  Kim Baker (Tina Fey) is not, at first, one of these people. She’s not even a proverbial mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, she’s a mild-mannered domestic news copy writer for an unnamed-but-not-top-shelf video news outlet. It’s 2003 and, as her editor puts it, “Iraq 2” is about to kick off. All resources are headed there, so he’s looking for a volunteer from among his unmarried, childless staff to head to Afghanistan.  Related: Tina Fey: it’s a ‘terrible time’ for women in comedy  When Baker gets to Kabul she recognizes it’s the big FW – the forgotten war. She’s assigned a bodyguard, Nic (Stephen Peacoke), and a local “fixer”, Fahim (Christopher Abbott), and is sent to a scuzzy room in the sprawling, freshman dorm-like building that doubles as office and abode for foreign correspondents. Nihilistic bravado overflows as much as the ashtrays.  This is Tina Fey we’re talking about, so this isn’t an immediate plunge into Robert Altman-esque world-weariness. There are some Private Benjamin-like hijinks that involve learning how to conduct an interview while Afghan winds blow hair all over your face. But during her first embed with a USMC outfit (under the command of Billy Bob Thornton, in a truly terrific supporting role) the bullets start flying and Baker jumps into the fray with her camera running. Instantly she’s hooked, and it’s going to take something serious to break her addiction.  The adrenaline junkie who gets off on dangerous situations is a fascinating subgenre, from The Hurt Locker to Bringing Out the Dead to the recent Sundance doc Jim: The James Foley Story . Whiskey Tango Foxtrot eases into it slowly, such that its ultimate seriousness feels like a surprise not only to Baker, but to us in the audience, too. There’s a lot else in the film to keep busy, like a love story with a Scottish photographer Iain (Martin Freeman), as well as a nicely spun feminist awakening.  “She had to travel halfway around the world just to find herself” is exactly not the type of nauseating cliche you’ll find Robert Carlock’s script (adapted, loosely it seems, from Kim Barker’s memoir The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan). Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, directed by Glenn Ficara and John Requa (writers of Bad Santa, writer/directors of Focus) would never let something like that pass even if, let’s face it, that is what’s going on here.  Ficara and Requa have an irreverent streak, one that even might strike some as a little flippant against the gravity of the war. One of the film’s few troops-in-harm’s-way sequences is set to Harry Nilson’s goofy power ballad Without You; and when a trip up to Kandahar to chase a story means putting on a blue burqa (or, as Fey calls it, a “mystery Ikea bag”) she steps out (in slo-mo) to a bossa nova beat.  Maybe that’s offensive to Muslim women (or maybe the male oppression of women by demanding they wear the burqa is offensive; this has always been a toughie), but that’s nothing like the realization midway through the picture that the “nice Afghan”, Fahim, is played by Christopher Abbott. Abbott (James White, HBO’s Girls) is a fantastic actor and with the beard and turban certainly “passes,” but what the hell were they thinking? Alfred Molina plays a far dopier role as an Afghan politician somewhat obsessed with Fey’s character, but that whole storyline is so jokey (and hokey) it’s hard to take it too seriously. Abbott is hardly putting butts in seats, and there are scores of actors from this part of the world that could have done Fahim’s part well. It’s the type of hollow move that would cause this gang of jaded reporters to throw their arms up.  That aside (and a silly plot twist with another reporter played by Margot Robbie), this is by far the best feature film in which Tina Fey has played the lead. Granted, that’s a low bar, but it’s a relief to finally see her in a role that utilizes her smarts, her comic timing and the fundamental goodness that exudes from her persona. Kim Baker is a media striver overcoming obstacles and finding solutions, not that far removed from 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon. Only now it’s not comedy, it’s war, and while Whiskey Tango Foxtrot does a good job to show how brazenly disinterested some of these people can be about the wider story in exchange for nabbing a scoop, this represents a step up to the big leagues for both the character and the star.  • Whisky Tango Foxtrot is released in the US on 4 March, and in the UK on 22 April
An assignment to Afghanistan proves the making of Fey’s journalist character in this irreverent romp, and suggests the comedian could pursue weightier roles