PARK CITY, Utah -- A competent, efficient, accountable government? Fuhgedaboutit.

The Sopranos star James Gandolfini isn't even sure President Barack Obama can correct the dysfunction.

"I'm a wait and see kinda guy. I think he's a very smart man, obviously, which is a good thing.

"I think the institution can be bigger than the men involved and let's hope that's not true. It can take a long time to turn the ship."

The bungling of bureaucracy is key to Gandolfini's latest, In The Loop, a comedy about the clash between U.S. and British military officials and politicians prior to the Iraq war. Despite the setting, he stresses its themes are universal.

"It wasn't about a certain war. It was about politics in the workplace and that stuff, and relationships too. That's what I loved about it -- it could be anywhere, it could be at a 7-Eleven ...

"The Sopranos was about mothers that drive you crazy -- that's everywhere in the world."

And thanks to that seminal series, he's now in the position to be picky about what projects he takes on.

"The truth is, I have a little money so I can take it easy and decide what I want to do. Before it was like, 'I got to do this.' "