.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

My first reservation with the new Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman film, Charlie Wilson's War was the title. What a terrible headline for a star studded vehicle. It ranks right up there with The Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Operation Dumbo Drop and Ecks Vs. Server. It's rare that I am turned off by a film that simply by the title, but don't studio's spend millions on advertising and test audiences? Am I the first to point this out?

Lucky for me, I was able to swallow my distaste and head out to the local theatre for this based on truth story about a congressman, Charlie Wilson (Hanks) that seems to have almost single handedly won the war against the Russians by the Afghanistan's in the early to late 1980's.

Directed by Mike Nichols who travels back to politics in film for the first time since 1998's Primary Colors, and written by The West Wing's creator Aaron Sorkin, the film is a smart-tongued fast delivered historical drama that is as much comedic as it is almost implausible to believe that one man could go through the loopholes and allowances of government sub-committees eventually securing over one billion dollars towards the Afghan's cause.

Hank's adds another stellar performance to an already polished resume as the title character Charlie. Charlie is a womanizer, a heavy drinker and someone who goes through life with rarely a care outside of his own. It's a character we have not seen Hanks portray before and is his most unique screen presence since Professor Dorr in The Ladykillers.

Julia Roberts gets second billing as Joanne Herring, an upper class politically involved woman who will use everything in her power - from religion to sex - in an effort to secure funding for the Afghan war.

But the film's scene stealer is Phillip Seymour Hoffman as CIA Operative Gust Avrakatos. It's been a career year (again) for Hoffman as he turned in three incredible roles including turns in The Savages and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Here, Gust is the brains of the operation and his dry wit and true sense of the Afghan situation is as straight as it is black in humor.

Most film's that receive high grades from critics get the director credit for the overall production, but in Charlie Wilson's War, it is Sorkin's writing that is the stand-out of the crowd. His writing of the introduction of Gust to Charlie at the same time that Charlie is fielding calls and thoughts on an impending cocaine/stripper association is rapid-fire brilliance that has all the humor, confusion yet fluency of the best West Wing episode.

While the film is historical in significance, it's nominated for a Best Picture Golden Globe in the comedy or musical category. The deadpan deliveries of Sorkin black wit are the primary reasons so don't expect to be seeing a film that will resemble a documentary on the History Channel. Instead, it is a fascinating and revealing cautionary tale about how one man changed the world. Some of the names thrown around in the film (Guilliani, Bhutto etc.) became front page new stories some twenty years after Charlie Wilson's contributions were long forgotten. And Sorkin does a great job of telling the story without being too preachy or reaching too hard to try and help us connect the dots to what eventually ended up being the American effort supporting the Taliban with weapons of destruction.

So, look beyond the title. It might still be a terrible name for a film, but at least it's not Love in the time of Cholera.