2 reviews

The film is based on the true story of Charles "Good Time Charlie" Wilson, a colourful Democrat congressman, whose story became well-known after he raised millions of dollars to covertly supply arms to Afghanistan during the Cold War, resulting in their defeat of the Soviet threat, and contributing to the end of the conflict.

Considering the subject matter the film is effortlessly light-hearted, Aaron Sorkin's excellent script is full of witty banter and comic moments. But, just as in the West Wing (also written by Sorkin), this situational comedy doesn't detract from the political points this film is making. There is a sting in the tail of this film, which surprised and pleased me, and made me realise just why the film is so popular in the US at the moment. It doesn't hit you over the head with it but it conceals an important message for the current US administration, which is only explicitly stated in the final scene.

Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman are a joy to watch together, their characters are so well drawn and each of them completely fills their respective roles. I'm a fan of Hoffman generally and enjoyed his portrayal of Gust immensely. I wasn't quite so sure about Julia Robert's character, she plays the part well enough, but there is a lot of mystery to Joanne Herring and we don't find out enough to really care about her in the same way as the other two. There are quite a few good names in this though, including Om Puri, Amy Adams, John Slattery, and Emily Blunt. The look of the film is also pitch-perfect, everything is delightfully retro and there is some intelligent use of archive footage to aid the portrayal of the conflict in Afghanistan itself.

Sarah Brett 17 Jan 2008

I've a weakness for informative dramas like Traffic, Fast Food Nation, Syriana. Of course, I know that the information is tangled in with fictions and, of course, I know that not everything I see can be taken as gospel or even be separated from the agenda of the film makers. It isn't, if the truth be told, the information that gives me the kick. It's the arena. Informational dramas tend to engage very strongly because, frankly, areas about which filmmakers still have a lot of information to impart are still quite fresh seams to be mined for drama too.

Charlie Wilson's War is no doubt rather informative, and with it, most definitely dramatic.

Aaron Sorkin, the film's screenwriter clearly has a thing about the most powerful institutions in America - he was previously responsible for The American President, A Few Good Men and The West Wing. His new subject, Senator Charlie Wilson, here portrayed by the ever dependable Tom Hanks (dependably accessible, dependably competent, dependably Hanks) is the 70s-80s Texan Liberal booze-n-babes abuser who ultimately convinced congress to arm the Afghani people in their struggle against the Russians, possibly even bringing about the end of the Cold War. Most of us know something of how this eventually turned out - one chain reaction of international maneuvres later, airplanes were flown into the World Trade Centre - though very few of us will know much of how it all began. That's this film's information, and drama, right there.

There's an accomplished cast at work here - Hanks, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman in hysterical overdrive, and thinking man's pin-ups Emily Blunt and Amy Adams - and they all make hay from the witty, snappy script. Director Mike Nicholls, a dab hand at this business, keeps everything in the red zone without fumbling any of the more subtle moments and, overall, it's splendidly entertaining stuff that should sell popcorn as much as it will start debates.

Perhaps, just perhaps, some of the story as told here seems a little too neat and tidy to be absolutely true, and there's absolutely no chance the real life folk were this quick witted and zippy with the dialogue, but it all works wonderfully in an old-Hollywood, golden era kind of way. Seeing Hanks and Hoffman trade banter; Julia Roberts with a glorious-come-hilarious do, climbing out of the pool in a gaudy-skimpy swimsuit; or an arms deal being brokered with the aid of an eminently distracting belly dancer is nothing but movie magic.

Highly recommended.

Buzzcut Edwards 9 Jan 2008