When it’s not catering to the sensibilities of the Adam Sandler audience and rising above the average dick and fart joke, comedy has the unique ability to place incredibly serious subjects in a rose-colored lens and lets us laugh at things we might normally find hideously offensive. Take Four Lions for example, a film that shows four inept terrorists as they attempt to strike a blow against something in the name of nothing. For the right crowd, the film will consistently hit the funny bone and finds an interesting way to call into question what change terrorism can actually affect. However, for the crowd that can’t stomach sharp satire (if you still find Blazing Saddles too racy and over the top, it’s you), the topic and how it’s addressed in such a jocular manner might push the boundaries of bad taste. Hopefully, you’ll fall into the former group, and if you do Four Lions is not to be missed.
The sad truth of today, and the one that made 24 such a populist hit for the last decade, is that terrorist cells exist. They live among peaceful citizens like genuine, literal walking time bombs waiting for that optimal moment that will make their sacrifices a stirring act of horror to stick on the mind of the public for years to come. The prospect should terrify you. Until now. Four Lions proposes that though deadly, there’s nothing that says these cells are all that bright or have the guidance and know-how to carry out an attack. Two such terrorist-hopefuls include London residents Omar (Riz Ahmed) and his dull-witted best friend Waj (Kayvan Novak). After a long time spent sitting around in their flat, they receive the call to go train in the Middle East, a venture which ends catastrophically and sees them expelled back to England where they tell no one and decide to launch their own personal jihad with the help of the easily excitable Barry (Nigel Lindsay), the sheepish Fessal (Adeel Akhtar), and a bright-eyed student with a flair for the dramatic, Hassan (Arsher Ali). Together, they slowly cobble together the resources to create bombs and squabble the entire time trying to decide upon a target. Throughout it all, the quintet bumbles about making one mistake after another.
Think of it like Disney’s The Goofy World of Sports, a veritable instruction manual of what not to do when competing in any athletic contest, but with bombs. Consider Four Lions a somewhat hyper-realistic version of that for terrorists. It covers every contingency a terrorist might take to keep their activities a secret, and then shows how to do it wrong. The five protagonists play an odd cross between Abbott and Costello and Monty Python, drawing absurd situations within the lines of what many might think to be rigid lines of what kind of people become terrorists. In a truly touching moment of familial love worthy of any sugary sitcom episode ending, Omar’s wife comforts him after one of the group’s (many) misfortunes in the line of duty and gives him reassurance that she’s sure he’ll find glory in whatever horrible act he ends up committing. It’s the perfect absurd reflection of the nuclear family unit chemistry, and when the brief moments of touching family life are juxtaposed with incidents of terrorist incompetency, the film makes it very easy to empathize instead of demonize.
Performances across the board deserve recognition, with Ahmed leading a pack of highly capable comedians that gives each character a unique voice and opening the door wide for plenty of laughs. Each role has their own niche within the terrorist cell for them to bungle. Riz and Kayvan are the Abbott and Costello of the group, comparable to a more sentimentally linked Jackie Gleason and Art Carney in The Honeymooners; Omar pitches one idea after another only for Waj to swing and miss, with each and every one going far over his head. Then you have Lindsay’s hilariously played Barry, whose desire to make a meaningful impact leads him down all sorts of twisting, winding roads of logic, all of which end in comedy. In comparison to those three, Fessal and Hassan play in the margins of the comedy never having too much stake in any one punchline, but rather moving as pawns for the other three to play off of.
The comedy is spot on from start to finish, and even in the bittersweet ending you can’t help but walk away with a smile. Four Lions is the one of the funniest movies about terrorists you’ll ever see.
"Four Lions" opens November 5, 2010 and is rated R. Comedy, Drama. Directed by Christopher Morris. Written by Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain. Starring Kayvan Novak, Riz Ahmed, Adeel Akhtar, Nigel Lindsay, Will Adamsdale, Arsher Ali.
