Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

about the film: a fictional account based on the true story of how a democratic congressman from texas, charlie wilson, helped the us covert operation against the soviets in afghanistan in the late 1980’s.

what i liked: this film’s primary goal was to reveal information that might not be known to the average viewer about the role the us played in afghanistan in supporting the mujahedeen’s efforts to thwart soviet military control of afghanistan. how this film did it was to implement dry comical wit in almost every scene, making it more of a comedy first and an exposition second. the screenplay by sorkin was great at delivering wit as sorkin has previously shown in is most recent works before charlie wilson’s war, west wing and studio 60. set design and lighting were limited but adequate. cinematography made use of war scene footage which was at best adequate to help reinforce the story but not necessarily needed. hanks and seymour hoffman were outstanding with hoffman gaining an edge for his typical “character” acting performance over hanks’ protagonist role. revolving camera angles and sharp editing helped move the story along at a decent pace. best scene was when hoffman’s character finally met hanks’ character. outstanding movement and dialogue in that scene by those two actors as well as the supporting role (charlie’s office staff).

what i didn’t like: the film’s plot revolved around 2 main characters, hoffman and hanks. but these 2 characters didn’t meet until about half-way through the film. i would have liked to have seen more interaction between hoffman and hanks since they were the primary drivers of this film. roberts had her typical “smile and say a few lines” role where she just sucks the life away from a scene…example is her only direct one on one scene with hoffman where we can see hoffman’s acting outshine roberts on screen right before our very eyes. (as a side note, other than the film erin brockovich, where she actually got to meet and study the lead character herself, and maybe flatliners, roberts’s performances have never impressed me and she is one of my least favorite high paid hollywood actresses who’s made films during my lifetime). the screenplay was too dialogue heavy and although i enjoyed the wit, there wasn’t much time for the characters to exhale (other than hoffman, which was one of the motives of his character: to give the screenplay a pause for some witty air). very little in the way of a soundtrack. some type of music (even if it was some background) would have opened up the film a little bit because without it, it seemed very claustrophobic…which leads me to saying that i noticed very little exterior shots (war footage and refugee camp scenes) and mostly interior shots (which are typical for heavy dialogue films) that made you feel like you were stuck in a box while watching it.

my conclusion: strong performance by hoffman (as usual) and a decent performance by hanks along with a witty dialogue accomplished what might have originally been hard to foresee and that is a well made comedy that revolved around a crucial military and political event involving many nations of the world.


for a "professional" written review, go to ebert's review here


for a "professional" voice recorded review, go to npr's review here