Decades after M*A*S*H and Catch 22, we think we are used to satire on the American military, but this one takes us somewhat by surprise.

It looks as if it is serious. It opens with a young man being dropped in Greenland for a tour of duty. But there is something askew. He is dropped from the plane which takes off – and then we find he should be in Hawaii and authority will not accept he is who he is. And what is going on in this base – in Greenland? We are in Catch 22 territory.

The original novel by John Griesemer is called No One Thinks of Greenland. That should give some clues and tone.

The base is filled with eccentrics and misfits – and holds a very dark secret which makes the latter part of the film and the destruction of the base all the more sinister in the light of American troops and the war in Iraq and the wounded and the veterans.

The cast is also unusual. Jason Biggs has grown out of American Pie films and has appeared with Woody Allen in Anything Else. Here he has to hold interest as the centre of the film, which he does well. Jeremy Northam sporting a broad American accent is the commandant.

Natascha McElhone is his assistant who gets caught up with our hero. Michael Ironside the veteran of so many action films has a very different role as a maimed and wounded patient.
The trouble after Catch 22 and M*A*S*H is that what seems patently absurd up there on the screen is replicated at times in real life – and that isn’t funny. Which is, probably, the point of the film.

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