Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

Charlie Wilson's War. Film review. Amy Adams is so beautiful. I believe i had said that over and over again, but i'm gonna say it again anyway. Amy Adams is so beautiful. She had a small role in this film, and probably because i have no knowledge of her being in this film, i was pleasantly surprised when i saw her and found myself longing to see her on the scene again.

Charlie Wilson's War is an ensemble film full of a high-profiled casts in it. We've got Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, the ever-venerable Philip Seymour Hoffman, and of course, the ever-beautiful Amy Adams out front. All four has been nominated in one way or another for an Academy Awards. And Mike Nichols who is more than just your average director behind the screen, if you asked me. Added to that, several familiar faces were also floating by. Now, the problem with an ensemble film was that sometimes the focus weren't tipped to a point of necessity as it tends to wander about trying to give a relatively same impression to all of its cast. But with a film that titled with a character's name, and the film's tight script, the focus of this film was rarely strayed afar from our title's character. And as Charlie Wilson, Tom Hanks, he could be said to appear in every single scenes in this film. Therefore, against all predicatements of a star-studded ensemble film, this film was focused, with a fucking smart screenplay, and top notch acting all around (sans Julia Roberts).

Based on a true story that happened in 1980s, Charles Wilson, who as one of the character in the film said, "a congressman of nothing of importance", got involved in the Afghanistan war against the Soviet, managed to raise a US$ 5 million of covert operation to a US$ 1 billion with a 'b' that eventually helped the Afghans defeated the Russians. This film, if it was indeed really based on a true story, confims my personal suspicion that CIA was involved in many things that had happened around the world since World War II. Including Afghanistan - Soviet war, and the chain of events that led to an overthrown of Sukarno back in 1966. But that's another matter.

Charlie Wilson as played by Tom Hanks was a unique persona as an US Congressman. He went to a party, dousing naked in a bath with three voluptuous women, two of whom are strippers, and one of whom is a Playboy cover girl. His office employed only women who on an occassion, one of them says, "you can teach them how to type, but you can't teach them how to grow a tit", and aptly billed at the end credit as Charlie's Angels. He loves alcohol, but he also showns a compassion and a competence in what he does. When he visits the refugee camp in Afghanistan, he promised to deliver a mean to at least levelling the odds of the Mujahidin warriors against the Red Army. And even if everybody said that he couldn't do it, he manages to raise a US$ 1 billion covert budgets that eventually forced the Red Army to retreat into their territory. However, the irony of it all was that he couldn't get to raise a mere US$ 1 million to re-built the school in a post-war Afghanistan. Thus, his quote at the end of the film. "These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world ...and then we fucked up the end game."

In these times of day when the word "War" almost means an already infamous Iraqi War or worse, if that's possible at all, the world's police involvement against Arabs (see: The Kingdom), i was actually surprised to see that this film took its focus on the second-hand involvement of the U.S in an event that took place nearly twenty years ago. I could very much enjoy this film, for it would seems to me, that even though the film takes on a serious War subject, Mike Nichols manages to ascertained the vibe of a film that was sooo amazingly light, fun, and not too mention humorous. Philip Seymour Hoffman definitely steals his scenes with his wry humors, and Amy Adams steals her scenes with her natural inner beauty. Oh, i love her. I would boldly say here, that get rid of Julia Roberts, and this film would get a solid maximum four stars from your self-important reviewer here. Don't really understand why she keeps getting a huge paycheck, i mean, come on, she hasn't improved a bit in recent years.

And although four months has gone into the year of dry-films, 2008, Charlie Wilson's War i would named as one of the best film in 2007.