“Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” a film based on the accounts of war correspondent Kim Barker’s memoir, “The Taliban Shuffle,” seems to have a lot of potential. Most films concerning war correspondents are almost exclusively about male journalists, so it’s refreshing to see a new take on both America’s long, dwelling war as well as the subject of war reporting. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t deliver.

Starring Tina Fey as Barker, the film opens with roaring music, as Western correspondents all packed in the press house in Kabul dance and drink the night away. Just watching this, you wouldn’t think Afghanistan is a dangerous place.

The party scene is quickly interrupted as a bomb goes off in the distance, prompting the journalists to rush to the scene. Barker reports what is happening amidst crying women and dead bodies, yet the seriousness of the situation doesn’t feel genuine. And that’s how most of the movie feels.

Caught between the middle ground of comedy and drama, the film never truly finds its footing. As a comedy, the film fails to mock the war or satirize it, instead going for quick laughs. As a drama, the audience never feels the tension and fear of reporting in a conflict zone.

The film portrays Afghanistan in a very westernized account, as Barker and her other journalist friends drink and party to relieve the tension. It’s as if Afghanistan is a vacation spot, interrupted by bursts of embedded reporting with the Marines away from the relative safety of Kabul. In fact, Barker decided to report in Afghanistan to escape the mundane modernity of her life as a news writer back in New York.

The few moments of the seriousness of the war are few and far between, and often cut short. Barker struggles to fight for airtime of her pieces, which highlights the growing distance between ordinary Americans stateside understanding the war and the men and women who are fighting them.

If “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” had decided to stay in one direction, whether as a comedy poking fun at the war and satirizing it, or as a drama offering Barker’s harrowing account as she navigates Afghanistan, reporting on the war, the film may have been able to deliver. Yet as is, the film is in conflict with what message to tell.

**MOVE gives “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” 2 out of 5 stars.**

_Edited by Katie Rosso and Elana Williams | move@themaneater.com_