Based on the true story of how Charlie Wilson, an alcoholic womanizer and Texas congressman, persuaded the CIA to train and arm resistance fighters in Afghanistan to fend off the Soviet Union. With the help of rogue CIA agent, Gust Avrakotos, the two men supplied money, training and a team of military experts that turned the ill-equipped Afghan freedom-fighters into a force that brought the Red Army to a stalemate and set the stage for conflicts in the Middle East that still rage to this day.

I wonder if the producers of the film got the irony of the last line of the film, because the film itself falls perfectly into that category. I'll paraphrase, we did something glorious but in the end we &*$%ed up the end game. The same could be said about Charlie Wilson's war for the most part the film is brilliant, funny and entertaining but they screw up the end game and the ending of the film. Someone needs to tell them tt's OK most of us willing to sit through a two drama about war at a time when we are being plagued with an actual war on the evening news can handle the truth and in fact know something about the truth. It's OK to admit that by helping the Afghan's rid themselves of the communist we helped train and form portions Al'Quida and eventually it led to them using that training against us. You don't have to gloss over the fact, you don't have to hide it with a simple line and a scene about Charlie Wilson trying to get funding for schools and failing, we can handle it, the movie can handle it and it would make for a more powerful ending as well to the film.

The story itself is intriguing, one lowly congressman from nowhere in Texas manages to start, fund and run a covert war while no one was looking. The sheer logistics of it should be virtually impossible and if it weren't based on a true story you wouldn't believe it. But that's what makes it so great, the fact that he had the audacity to do what no one else would and he does it with no one realizing he is doing it. The characters are what are so rich, Charlie Wilson is someone you find yourself drawn into, amazed by and somewhat appalled that one man could make so much happen in our own government. It's hard to believe that someone who shouldn't have that much power, truly does if he is smart and knows what he is doing and how to get pass what should be roadblocks in his way.

The movie mixes a little bit of everything into its tale from drama, to some action to even comedy. Charlie Wilson was a likable guy that was also a sexual fiend and an alcoholic. The film starts with him in a hot tub in Vegas with strippers doing coke and ends with him winning a war against the Soviets that begins the downfall of communism, and its all based on true events. You can't help but laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it at times, can't help but be drawn into the drama of it and what little action there is rounds out the film perfectly. The ending just doesn't fit, it feels watered down, diluted and too politically correct.

I have always been a fan of Tom Hanks and he can pull off almost any role, including over the top performances like he gives in Charlie Wilson's War. Charlie Wilson himself was over the top, almost unbelievable and Hanks pulls that off to perfection. As does Phillip Seymour Hoffman with his brash straight shooting CIA agent not afraid to ruffle a few feathers and not afraid of ruining his own career by doing so. And Hoffman can come off as the deplorable good guy like no one else. The only downside is Julia Roberts, she just doesn't fit and her performance pales against Hoffman's and Hanks. She doesn't seem like the religious right wing politician socialite that she is supposed to be and the movie takes a turn for the worst every time she is on the screen. The movie could have been glorious but they &*$%ed up the end game.

Grade: B-