SNMR 5.22: "Charlie Wilson's War"

Tonight's SNMR feature was going to be "Jumper," but the scribester, at the eleventh hour, suggested we review that one over on the BIG SCREEN. So go read our reviews on that one over there. Instead, tonight's SNMR review here is "Charlie Wilson's War" (2007, R, 102 minutes), starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Ned Beatty. The film was directed by Mike Nichols.

PLOT SUMMARY: This is a biopic of Congressman Charlie Wilson of Texas, and his own private war between the Afghans and the Russians, which took place in the 1980's.

MY OPINION: Right off the bat, I had a feeling that this movie would be good. There's very few movies Tom Hanks has done that I have disliked. Philip Seymour Hoffman is excellent and ably demonstrates here that he is a very talented and versatile actor, who I think is still underrated even if he won an Oscar a few years ago. I really didn't like Julia Roberts in this film. Sure, her acting was decent but I think they could have found a different actress who would have been just as good or better for the part. The rest of the cast is excellent as well.

Mike Nichols is as good a director as we have these days. He is ably suited to take a story based in ho-hum historical events and transform it into something interesting and witty. I like the fact that Nichols virtually seamlessly intertwines real-life footage of the Afghan Soviet War into the movie, giving it a more thorough grounding in reality.

I've never read the novel on which Aaron Sorkin based his screenplay, so I can't say how much variation there is between the two. I think that Sorkin does a great job of capturing the real life quirks and foibles of these people in his script, which helps to make the characters more likeable.

For me, the subject matter makes this is the type of movie that I enjoyed once but can't see the desire to watch again.

***½ out of *****