By Muhammad Muzammal
assistant arts and entertainment editor

After a few failed outings on the big screen – “Sisters,” “Baby Mama,” “Admission,” – Tina Fey gets a meaty, substantial role as American journalist Kim Barker in the entertaining dark comedy, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa.

Based on Barker’s 2011 memoir, “The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” – which is military lingo for “WTF” – takes some liberties with its source material, dropping the “r” in Barker’s name and reimagining the print journalist as a TV producer.

Fey plays Baker, the mid-life character that is tired of living an unexciting life. The highest point of Baker’s day is probably exercising on the bicycle in her New York office and a boyfriend who occasionally visits her (once a month is pushing it).

When Baker is selected to be a war correspondent in Afghanistan and Iraq, she doesn’t react with fear as much as unbridled excitement. Baker ends up spending years in the Middle East meeting comical figures such as a sex-crazed frenemy Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie), the noble Fahim (Christopher Abbott), the scary commandant Sadiq (Alfred Molina) and the Scottish soon-to-be love interest Iain (Martin Freeman).

Despite this cast of characters, the film’s focus remains on Baker and her life-changing journey, showing her go into deeply conservative and threatening areas of the Afghan region. A dichotomy is seen between the patriarchal, radical atmosphere of the Middle East and the clear-cut feminist message of the film. Considering Hollywood’s terrible record with gender inequality, “WTF” is a nice surprise and has enough wit and humor to make it a worthwhile ride. However, it has its problems, some of which are serious and disappointing.

The Hollywood myopic whitewashing continues as Anglo actors are cast as key Afghani characters. There is a copious amount of fine Middle Eastern actors that could’ve been given an opportunity, but alas, Hollywood sticks to moderately known actor Molina and newcomer Abbott to play arguably the most important non-American roles.

For all the excitement and humor in this film, there is a level of narrative boredom. Challenging concepts are not fully realized; instead humor is thrown in the way. Similar to “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” the film “Zero Dark Thirty” is also about a woman climbing her way up the ladder and finally gaining a sense of life affirmation overseas. “Zero Dark Thirty” went deeper with this theme and tried to explore the difficulty of a woman who is under appreciated in her homeland and objectified overseas.

Humor is the dirty little cousin of drama; despite the pathos of “Zero Dark Thirty,” the same type of challenging story can exist in a comedy. But you won’t find it in “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.”

For all of Ficarra’s and Requa’s well intentioned direction and “30 Rock” scribe Robert Carlock’s fresh wit, one can’t help but feel underwhelmed by the film and its suppression of great ideas for entertainment’s sake.

Fey’s finely tuned performance is unfortunately surrounded by a film which, while marketed as a progressive feminist film, is actually safer than it appears to be.