An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Mike Nichols.
Cast: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Emily Blunt
Description: Idealistic Texas congressman Charlie Wilson is causing a stir on Capitol Hill, flanked by his assistant Bonnie Bach. When his on-off socialite lover Joanne Herring begs for help with the war effort in Afghanistan, which has just been invaded by the Soviets, Charlie agrees to spearhead the political campaign to increase funding for Mujahideen freedom fighters to repel the invaders. Tapping into a ground swell of support, Charlie aligns himself with maverick CIA agent Gust Avrakotos and together they begin greasing the political cogs and wooing high profile figures like Pakistani president Zia ul-Haq.
Country: US. 2007. 101mins
Champagne Charlie: Tom Hanks as Wilson on the campaign trail
Southern beauty: Julia Roberts has little to do but seem like a socialite maneater
Bad-tempered: Philip Seymour Hoffman is the best performer
You couldn't possibly make it up. Or, if you did, it would seem like crass fiction. Mike Nichols's film, however, is based on a well-documented story - and there is no reason to doubt it, even if its conclusions are not entirely kosher.
Charlie Wilson, the US congressman from Texas investigated for coke-sniffing by none other than Rudy Giuliani, really was given a cool billion dollars by the Covert Operations Committee to buy arms with which to give the mujahideen a sporting chance of defeating the Russian invaders in Afghanistan.
History tells us that there were other reasons why the Russians gave up their expensive occupation. It also tells us that the arms that Wilson supplied are being used to this day by the Taliban against the Americans, and were certainly used to take power.
No matter. Nichols, collaborating with George Crile, the writer of the best-selling book about Wilson, and armed with Tom Hanks as producer and star and Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, as screenwriter, has fashioned an ironic comedy just right for the last embers of the Bush presidency.
It suggests that if you bring down one evil empire, another one will rise up against you. But that suggestion is encompassed in just one line at the end of the movie - not quite enough for those who might need a fuller explanation.
In the main, this is an Eighties political drama about a flawed man, who certainly did inhale, imbibed whisky like water, seduced as many women as he could and kept a harem of pretty assistants dubbed Charlie's Angels, but was a staunch liberal who had enough interest in foreign affairs to watch Dan Rather on telly even as he cavorted in a hot tub with Playboy strippers.
An outrageous man with a lot of charm, a shrewd instinct as a lobbyist, and an indomitable will when his blood was up, Wilson secured the arms from Pakistan, Israel and Egypt because America at the time didn't want to be seen officially whacking Russia. It was a bold and often absurd series of moves, which made momentary friends of mortal enemies.
It entailed a session with the Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq (an excellent Om Puri), at which he asked the fundamentalist dictator for a drink, another with a well-known Israeli arms dealer (Ken Stott) and a third with an Egyptian minister (Aharon Ipalé) for whom he procured a famous American belly dancer (Tracy Phillips).
Wilson was aided in all this by a Greek-American CIA spook who loathed his superiors (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and a well-connected Southern beauty (Julia Roberts) who hated the Commies and was prepared to sleep with him to help him make up his mind.
Zia also did that by sending him off to a refugee camp, where he saw for himself the awful results of the Russian invasion.
Hanks the producer, who clearly got the film made, is not the ideal Charlie. Though he has the charm, he hardly suggests the necessary steel. Roberts, returning to the screen after a longish interval, has little to do but seem like a striking socialite maneater whom God has called up against the Russkies.
Much the best performance comes from Hoffman as the slobby, bad-tempered agent on the Afghanistan desk, peppering the film with its more mordant lines. Hoffman seems able to invest any part he plays with a different tone and physical appearance.
Charlie Wilson's War mercifully whips through its story in a little over 90 minutes (a rare feat these days). It falls short when it tries to portray the war in Afghanistan, which looks a bit sketchy, makes nothing much of Wilson's sexual antics and often fails to strike the right tone.
It is sometimes flippant when it needs to be serious and a trifle silly when it should show us, without too much prodding, that truth in politics is often a deal stranger than fiction.
But there is an innate intelligence at work, and Mike Nichols's well-known propensity for showing us how crazily the world goes round is always apparent.
This is not by any means a great movie, but it's one that is memorable enough in comparison with all but a very few Hollywood offerings of the past months.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
"This is not by any means a great movie, but it's one that is memorable enough in comparison with all but a very few Hollywood offerings of the past months." Now there's a ringing inducement to pay to see this attempt to rewrite history to favor liberals!
- C A Jones, Phoenix, Arizona USA
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