Charlie Wilson’s War

Starring: Tom Hanks, Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Ned Beatty

Written by: Aaron Sorkin

Directed by: Mike Nichols

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Rated: R

In 1981, Texas Congressman Charles Wilson and CIA case officer Gus Avrakotos substantially increased U.S. aid for Mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan in their fight against the Soviet Union. Houston aristocrat and political activist Joanne Herring was instrumental in helping Wilson raise the funds from the U.S. government. This screen adaptation of the book of the same name stars Tom Hanks as Charles Wilson, Julia Roberts as Joanne Herring and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Gus Avrakotos. In spite of what star power and subject matter may lead you to believe, Charlie Wilson’s War is not a big-budget Hollywood love song for American imperialism; it deals with the delicate complexities of U.S. involvement overseas with a surprising degree of detail. In the effort to tell a concise story, however, finer points of the Soviet-Afghan War have been glossed over, turning the Soviets into evil villains who mercilessly kill innocent civilians. The Soviets were engaged in atrocious activities in Afghanistan in the 1980s, but it’s difficult to see Charles Wilson and his pals as the good guys. While the U.S. was funding freedom fighters in Afghanistan in the ‘80s, it was also funding Contras in Nicaragua that were at least as vicious and bloodthirsty as the Russian military. The CIA has been involved in questionable covert operations all over the world, and while a full exploration of these wouldn’t fit into the film’s scope, some sort of substantial perspective would have kept it from feeling short-sighted.

The production values are just as impressive as one would expect from a big-budget holiday release. The accoutrements of the ‘80s are meticulously reconstructed to the minutest detail – even the cash Avrakotos hands a cafeteria worker in Langley is 1981-appropriate. But the action in the foreground fails to make much of an impression. Despite Julia Roberts’ talent and Tom Hanks’ Tom Hanks-ness, neither seems as captivating on screen as their biographies imply.

Thankfully, Philip Seymour Hoffman is shamelessly fun as a CIA pencil pusher. He’s brash and witty, without a hint of the finesse one would expect from a CIA operative. A genius with no need to prove it, humor and anger tumble out of him with neither force nor stress. Early on, Hanks tells him, “You’re no James Bond.” That’s a good thing – it’s much more satisfying to see Avrakotos in a normal day at the office than it would be to see James Bond or Jason Bourne cruising even the most exotic and dangerous locale. He makes even Langley look alluring; it’s too bad his performance is attached to an otherwise dull film. If you could put a character like that in a big budget film that embraced its own fiction and you’d have something remarkable. VS