Charlie Wilson’s War, Suprisingly Good
Dec 22nd, 2007 by Alex
Even though there was a lot going on last weekend, it didn’t mean that we wanted to stay home. So we headed to Hoyt’s last night and saw Charlie Wilson’s War.
In a word… wow.
The movie was supposedly based on actual events both frightening and telling and poignant, the CIA-aided whooping of the Soviets by Afghanistan. I’m not sure how much of the details are real versus how much is embellished, but it is enjoyable all the way through.
Tom Hanks plays Congressman Wilson and Philip Seymour Hoffman plays CIA agent “Gus” (whose name is knowingly dicked up by Hank’s character throughout the movie). Both were excellent, particularly in shared scenes. Hoffman is in a much better role than the last movie I saw him in. You can expect good things — if not a tad easy — from Amy Adams, less so from Julia Roberts whose character was written a tad weak.
Overall I was surprised. I hadn’t seen the previews, just read the summary on IMDB when I got the invite. It was much better than I was expecting. Some movies are entertaining and then you can forget ‘em after a while, whereas I’ll remember this one for a while to come. I expected the first, hence the surprise. It is a serious movie but you get to laugh a lot too. It’s okay because it is intended, and that’s something that rarely happens in serious films.
Well played.
Actually there is a story in today’s (22 Dec) Washington Post about the real Charlie Wilson and how his story relates to the movie. It is worth a read.
Paul: There were a few articles on WP.com, any one in particular?
Thanks for the review - hopefully I can convince someone to see this while I’m here in oHIo.
Charissa: If not, both my buddy and I are down to see it again. It was that good.
I read that WaPo article too and it says there was tons of wacky stuff they had to leave out. The man was a real character.