4/10
CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR (2007). The book on which this film is based is long, detailed and fascinating, as it explains how one Senator’s determination to help the mujahadeen in Afghanistan fight the Russians (he was very anti-Communist), led to the arming of the Taliban and the struggle the West is having there today, not to mention 9/11. It so happens that Charlie Wilson (the senator) was a funloving guy who was never happier than with a drink and 2 hot babes, so the film treats the whole war thing as light relief. It has a terrific performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman as a rogue CIA guy who helps Wilson, but the casting of Tom Hanks as Wilson and Julia Roberts as the woman who encouraged him, trivialises a serious subject.
