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For a satire to bite, someone has to draw blood.
Cue Philip Seymour Hoffman -- in his third dynamite performance of 2007, following Before The Devil Knows You're Dead and The Savages -- as CIA agent Gust Avrakotos, the one coarse, blunt-edged weapon in director Mike Nichols' otherwise dulled arsenal. He's not the only reason to see Charlie Wilson's War, a sophisticated, snappy account of how you can fund a military operation without telling the public, but he's by far the most persuasive. Can someone please give this man an Oscar? What's that -- they already have? Well, give him another one. Or four.
Tom Hanks, also a producer, stars as Wilson, a boozing, womanizing, Democratic congressman from Texas -- hounded by conservatives for his personal indiscretions -- who emerged the principal, and unprincipled, force behind the expulsion of the Soviets from 1980s Afghanistan.
Adapted by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, the script follows Wilson for a decade as he cons, cajoles and manoeuvres power players in Washington, Egypt, Israel and Pakistan to orchestrate the downfall of the Soviet Union's Afghan occupation. In doing so, he finds two well-positioned allies -- his sometimes-lover Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), a right-wing Texas socialite and millionaire, and Avrakotos, a gruff, mustachioed black-ops rogue whose only career ambition is to "kill some Russians."
Together, they supplied arms to the Afghan mujahideen without ever implicating -- or consulting -- the U.S. If that sounds like a big chunk of history to cover in a scant 97 minutes, it is -- and sometimes the breakneck pace comes at the expense of the storytelling.
For his part, Hanks plays Wilson as more a likeable scoundrel than a corrupt politico -- even if you're not sure if you should be rooting for someone so skilful at manipulating the system -- and the chemistry he shares with Hoffman is one of the film's great pleasures. Less impressive? Roberts -- brittle and unconvincing, in and out of the bedroom -- and the movie's final, too-timid third act. Timid because, with the exception of an end-credit quote, Nichols skirts around the obvious: That by driving out the Soviets and then not following through with substantive social aid, the U.S. created an arena for Islamic extremists, the Taliban and al-Qaida.
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Why the cold filmmaking feet? It's been reported the real-life Herring was responsible, going so far as to apply legal pressure to muzzle Sorkin's original, more pointed script.
Whatever the reason, the results are significant: Curtailing a war just as it looks won, and leaving audiences with the impression of a well-oiled skirmish.
(This film is rated 14A)