This entry was posted on Saturday, December 29th, 2007 at 11:08 pm and is filed under C, Dramedy, Movie Reviews, NEW ON VIDEO, True Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Mike Nichols
Starring: Tom Hanks, Amy Adams, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Tom Hanks is Hollywood’s can’t-miss man, and his record is intact after this fascinating true story about a hard partying U.S. congressman, a beautiful, wealthy, right wing Texan and a no-shit, sharp-as-a-razor, CIA pariah, who come together and manage to garner support for Afghan fighters battling the Russians. The rapid fire exchanges between Hanks and Seymour are fantastic and their characters are great. Roberts’ role is not as well-written and never did sell me, but this is still an interesting, and surprisingly funny film.
It’s the early 1980s and Tom Hanks is an easy-going, alcohol-addicted, but Washington-savvy congressman named Charlie Wilson, who is happy just staying elected, keeping his voters happy and enjoying all the perks available to a high-ranking politician. Wilson’s party world is disrupted when a rich supporter and friend, Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), prevails upon him to visit Afghanistan and see the state of the brave people there, who are suffering horribly in their resistance against the Russian invasion. Charlie comes back, looking to improve their condition. He soon finds a sharp, but disgruntled CIA operative to help him and, against all odds, these three single-handedly engineer a covert change in US policy that would change history.
It’s funny. It’s interesting. It’s hard to believe it’s true. The emotional manipulation gets a little heavy-handed in spots and the overly light view of guerilla warfare is disturbing at times, but the strengths of Charlie Wilson’s War compensate for these weaknesses. The dialog is witty, cool and delivered perfectly by two great actors, playing colorful characters in a story that you will remember for some time. See it. You’ll like it.
