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Critics Love Charlie Wilson's War
By Ryan Parsons | Images property of Universal Pictures.
Charlie Wilson's War
Charlie Wilson's War Reviewed
While discussing Charlie Wilson's War a few updates back I pointed out that, while the film did look like a lot of fun for being political, it could still go either way. Remembering my indecisiveness, 'Clairebare' has alerted us to some of the first reviews to appear for the Hanks starrer and both are positive.
Entertainment Weekly
Charlie Wilson's War, adapted by director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin from George Crile's nonfiction best-seller, has a familiar design — it's all about a likable scoundrel who discovers what it means to act out of conviction. The film's underlying twist, though, is tartly ironic. Even as we're cheering on Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), a back-scratching, log-rolling, good-ol'-boy Texas congressman of the 1980s who stumbles onto the cause of his career when he decides to covertly fund Afghanistan's mujahideen rebels against the Soviet Union, it's never clear if Wilson's ''commitment'' is anything but a more elevated, and naive, form of hubris.
Newsweek
You thought it was Ronald Reagan who brought down the Soviet empire? Or maybe Mikhail Gorbachev? "Charlie Wilson's War" tells another, wilder, considerably more amusing inside story. In this version of history, based on George Crile's nonfiction best seller, the credit for the routing of the Soviet Army by the mujahedin rebels in Afghanistan belongs to a little-known congressman named Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), a womanizing, scandal-plagued, hard-drinking, liberal pol from Texas. And he has two unlikely partners: his occasional lover, Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), a born-again, right-wing millionaire socialite, and Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a tough, uncouth working-class Greek-American CIA officer who likes nothing better than killing Russians.
Of course, hanging over this ironic tale is the deeper historical irony—that many of the "good guy" rebels Charlie is funding (and we're cheering) will become our mortal enemies.
Charlie Wilson's War opens
to theatres on December 21st.
For the trailer and more movie info, head over to the Charlie Wilson's War Movie Page.
Ryan Parsons
Sources: Images property of Universal Pictures.
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