CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR

By Matt Holmes / July 1, 2011

Mike Nichols Written by: Aaron SorkinBased on the novel by George Crile Starring: Tom Hanks, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Ned Beatty, Ken Stott,Wynne Everett, Mary Boone Barker, Rachel Nichols, Shiri Appleby, Om Puri, Faran Tahir Distributed by: Universal Pictures & Playtone Film was released Dec. 21st 2008 Review by Matt Holmes

rating: 2.5

Political biopics met with a 30's style adult comedy satire isn't something I believe audiences were craving to see and after sitting through a fast flowing 89 minutes of Charlie Wilson's War, I can't say I am overly keen to visit it again. It's not like Charlie Wilson's War is a bad movie, far from it in fact. It's terrifically made from British veteran Mike Nichols whose last film made me wanna pick up a shotgun and violently kill all four leads of his over-dramatic morality play Closer but I was still left confused and frustrated by his intentions here. Is this movie really just about Tom Hanks travelling the world, doing cocaine, drinking, having sex and meeting people... because that's just about all I cam remember from this. Badly mis-cast as the drinking, womanizing but smart and intelligent Congressman, Tom Hanks is Charlie Wilson... the man who pushed for the U.S. to aid the freedom fighters in Afghanistan in their battle against the Soviet Invaders in 1980, a time when it had to be done on the quiet because of the Cold War. It's the kind of tale that you just couldn't make up for a movie without it being a true story, it would be thrown out for simply being too unbelievable to film. To do this, Wilson has to meet with several people and charm them all so he can raise the funds for such an operation but can't be too obvious about it without blowing his own cover, because of the serious repercussions such a travesty would cause. To help him are the supporting players, Phillip Seymour Hoffman as intelligence man Gust Avrakatos in another absolutely stellar performance and Texas socialite Johanne Herring (the boring, Julia Roberts) in a movie that breezes by quickly without any kind of purpose or reasoning. From a script by respected writer Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing) I expected something a little more meaty here, away from the glamour that exists within the film. It's just too formulaic, too single-minded and fails to really delve into some of the true deeper matters and I never felt the importance of the events that he was tackling were as important as they actually were. Still it's ok and I left like I learned a couple of things, but it's not particularly memorable as an entertainment piece which seems to be which side it is aiming to fall down upon. I'm not surprised it's pretty much tanked in the U.S, it's subject matter is a tough sell.