Charlie Wilson's WarWaged by amiable actors December 19,
2007 2:18:47 PM
Tom Hanks
|
For a time, Charlie Wilson’s War gets by on the amiability of Tom Hanks as the coke-snorting, womanizing Texas congressman who, a crazy-quilt combo of James Bond and Hugh Hefner, was the secret force behind the mujahadeen’s driving the Soviets out of Afghanistan in the 1980s. But George Crile’s fascinating 500-pages-plus book about Wilson’s extra-legal covert military campaign has been reduced to a shallow 97 minutes by Mike Nichols. The international intrigue becomes strained satire — what’s needed is the comic touch of a Billy Wilder. More distressing is the virulent anti-Communism of the venture: “Kill the Russians!” is a refrain of the right-leaning characters, and their sentiment seems to be endorsed by Nichols and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. The supporting players are splendid, however, among them Philip Seymour Hoffman as a déclassé CIA operative and Julia Roberts as a millionairess with international connections. 97 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Circle/Chestnut Hill + suburbs
|
|
|
- Reconciling the irreconcilable
- Massachusetts lawmakers are pushing to criminalize Salvia. Is this a test-run for marijuana-law reform?
- Some Things at Trinity
- College gossip blogs exposed
- Never mind its tough-girl alt-porn feminism: SuicideGirls has already moved on to a new generation
- In honor of National Boss Day, thePhoenix.com presents the ultimate kingpins
- Daniel McCusker’s ‘tHisTHat’
- How did Deval Patrick's greatest strength become a dangerous weakness?
- The democratic race is getting messy, which can only mean one thing: it’s time to recruit Al Gore
- 50 years after the Boston Braves' departure, it’s worth asking: did the wrong team leave town?
- Artful lodger comes to MIT
- Nightlife
|
-
Overplotted pregnancy flick
-
Marianne Faithful dispenses handjobs in this unrealistic romance
-
A clumsy fairy tale
-
Paul Sherman’s Big Screen Boston
-
An astonishingly unpredictable ending
-
Poetic Americana
-
A report from the International Mexico City Festival of Contemporary Cinema
-
Retire the breakdance, already
-
Unbalanced and unoriginal
-
Love and politics
|
- Errol Morris checks the apples, not the tree, in Standard Operating Procedure
- Overplotted pregnancy flick
- Marianne Faithful dispenses handjobs in this unrealistic romance
- Too much melodrama
- Unimaginative erotic thriller
- Totally toothless
- Self-reflection and parody
- Total cheese for the CW set
- Brotherly amore
- Exploiting high school shootings
|
|
|
|