Charlie Wilson's War - Mike Nichols (2007)

Based on the true story of playboy congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), Charlie Wilson's War is another in a long line of post-9/11 movies.  Unlike Lions for Lambs, Rendition, and The Kingdom, veteran Director Mike Nichols' has delivered a light-hearted romp that deals with some very serious issues, primarily the US funding of Afghanistan rebels.  

Those used to a more family-friendly Tom Hanks will wonder whether it's really him, naked, in a hot tub, with some Vegas strippers, JD and coke in hand, in one of the film's opening scenes.  It's a credit to Tom Hanks that he is prepared to play such a potentially unsavoury character as Charlie Wilson and, more typically, to turn him into someone so heroic in spite of his womanising and debauchery.   

"Good Time Charlie's" exterior is a mask for a man whose patriotism and passion for the underdog led him to support Afghanistan against invading Russians in the early '80s.  Aided by his long time friend, and one of the wealthiest women in Texas, Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) and CIA Agent Gus Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the three travelled the world to build alliances between arms dealers, law makers and Middle Eastern nations, in an attempt to raise capital.   

It's in the three interweaving performances of Hanks, Roberts and Hoffman that the film really engages, the dialogue evoking old-school Hollywood glamour that is rarely seen these days, much less so in amongst such weighty subject matter.  Philip Seymour Hoffman's tactless and mumbling performance may have Oscar voters falling over themselves but with such a richness within the main cast it gives little room for the film's supporting players. Amy Adams, fresh from success with Enchanted, is wasted as Charlie's assistant and Emily Blunt is still failing to get the parts she deserves after her scene-stealing turn in The Devil Wears Prada.  

Whilst Charlie Wilson's War does stumble when it shifts from light-comedy to drama, the film manages to deliver much in its breezy 90 minute running time. Most remarkable is how one man's conviction can change world history and it's only in the film's climactic moments that Charlie realises his actions have far bigger repercussions. When asked how a group of Afghanistan peasants was able to deliver such a decisive blow to Russia's superpower, Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq responded simply, "Charlie did it."