To cynics, all politics are farcical, and the more tragic they become, the grander the farce. Mike Nichols and Aaron Sorkin know this instinctively, and in Charlie Wilson's War, they have created the perfect political farce. From the machinations and maneuvers of the plot, to dialogue that plays like The Flight of the Bumblebee, to the domino effect of global events, this is a screwball comedy where the misunderstandings are upgraded from the parlour-room to geopolitics.

Taken from the book by George Crile, West Wing creator Sorkin returns to the halls of power that made him a household name with a script that finely balances the greatness and absurdity of American grit. At the dawn of the Reagan years, we meet Charles Wilson (Tom Hanks), a five-term Texas congressman known primarily and unashamedly as a boozing, snorting, womanizing seat-filler. But the bon vivant image hides a deep fear of the Soviet incursion in Afghanistan. At the urging of his most important constituent and occasional lover, socialite Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), Wilson embarks on a quest to aid the Afghans in their struggle, and almost single-handedly sets in motion the largest covert military operation in American history.

But not quite single-handedly. In a door-slamming scene that rivals the best 1930s farces, Wilson meets CIA wonk Gust Avrokotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), one of the only people in the entire government who care about this fight with the Soviets. America has pledged support to the Afghan rebels, but has no intention of realistically supporting them until Gust and Charlie quietly join forces—the pragmatic grump working the ground, the smooth politician oiling the wheels of congress. Soon, weapons are being shipped around the world and budgets are spiralling into the billions.
 
This stuff could have been played for right-wing cheers, and in some ways it's a callback to the good old days when Soviets = bad guys, especially the Afghan refugee camps that spur Wilson to action. But that's where Mike Nichols gets you. Avrokotos is the one who clearly sees what will happen if God-fearing types—Herring and a committee chairman played by Ned Beatty—turn the cause holy. The special features gloss over any dark undertones, stressing "one man's power to change the world" and similar sentiments, but the film draws a clear line between American intervention, Soviet withdrawal and the coming of the fundamentalists. Wilson finds that he hasn't changed the world in quite the way he wanted.
 
Hanks, who also produced, carries the film by combining unstoppable charisma with humble self-effacement, and he and Roberts make a delicious couple. The grounding element to these beautiful people is Hoffman—squat, taciturn, Wilford Brimley-esque, dangerous. In pursuit of economy, characters are a bit too quirkily drawn, and cleverness often passes for depth. Also, women are underserved—Amy Adams as a congressional aide has little to do except fawn over Hanks, and it would have been nice to see Roberts' character, the engine behind the whole shebang, fully explored. The real Herring and Wilson appear in the scanty features, but add little insight.

As we delight in Wilson's puppeteering of the bureaucracy and cheer the tide turning in the war, we are being played, and only when the spectre of the Taliban and 9/11 finally appears in the distance do we realize how much. Just as Wilson hoodwinks Washington only to realize he has himself been hoodwinked, Charlie Wilson's War is a hoodwink, a very entertaining one. As all politics are. To cynics, of course.

Review By Michael Rottman