Charlie Wilson's War: DVD Review (2008)

A war movie with winks.

Set in 1980, just after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Mike Nichols’ film follows Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), the Democratic congressman from Texas who finds himself being urged to help the Afghani people by one Joanna Herring (Julia Roberts), a right-wing Houston socialite whose claim to fame, at least at the time, is that she was the sixth richest person in Texas and Charlie’s part-time lover.

Given those complications, Charlie agrees to her request to supply the Mujahedeen with the guns they need to eliminate the Russians from Afghanistan.

With the help of his assistant Bonnie (Amy Adams) and CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman, a fantastic mess), Wilson raised more than $1 billion in secret CIA funding to help shut the Soviets down.

Of course, history tells us that by doing so, Wilson essentially supported those who formed al-Qaida, but what did he know? He was just working for the woman and doing what he believed was right.

In Nichols’ capable hands, he does so in a movie that’s as comfortable dropping bombs at swank cocktail parties as it is in dodging others tossed overseas.

Read the full, unedited review here.

Rated R. Grade: B+

View the trailer below: