Charlie WilsonÃ’s War
Studio: Universal Pictures
Rated: R
Cast: Tom Hanks, Amy Adams, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Director: Mike Nichols
WorkNameSort: Charlie WilsonÃ’s War
Our Rating: 4.00
The same snappy wit that Aaron Sorkin brought to his prime-time TV shows is effortlessly transferred to the big screen in Charlie Wilson’s War, a breezy political entertainment for all sides of the partisan spectrum. That well-honed Sorkin gleam – glamorous blabbermouths discussing difficult and complex issues with focus group–tested palatability and lightness of touch – is what dominates Charlie Wilson’s War more than Mike Nichols’ nuanced direction. In telling the real-life story of Wilson (Tom Hanks), the womanizing alcoholic senator whose shambling quest caused a puny budget of $5 million for Afghan operations against the Soviets to balloon to $300 million, Nichols and Sorkin manage to rewrite history as a TV comedy. It’s exhaustively researched yet creatively enhanced, so that no potentially confusing political exposition gets in the way of a clever quip or vice versa. Ultimately it’s a film that understands that it’s OK to insert a little T&A into the political discourse. Otherwise, what would we have? Exactly: Lions for Lambs.
This article appears in Dec 19-25, 2007.