(2.5 out of 5 stars)

Tom Hanks stars as Charlie Wilson, a boozing, womanizing congressman who takes on the need for America to be involved in the early 80s Soviet/Afghanistan war. Hanks is always good, but where the movie begins with a promising premise, it fails to deliver in the end making it another boring political movie.

Julia Roberts is horribly miscast as a rich socialite pushing Hanks to pull his political weight without going through Washington red tape. She does not fit the part and overall, the character is boring. An unknown actress would have been a better fit in this part. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is great as usual as a CIA agent wanting to make a difference and not caring if he is politically correct. Hoffman has his best scene near the beginning of the movie where he tells his boss off and makes a wreck of his office. Haven’t we all wanted to do that?

Thus comes the problem. My favorite scene was Hoffman telling off his boss? The subject of the movie becomes uninteresting very quickly. Hanks goes back at forth between the east and DC and Texas without blinking an eye and finally gets an award for doing such a great thing. The movie makes a mistake in giving us the ending at the beginning. This is a movie that would make more sense to see completely in chorological order. This sort of storytelling reminds me of Hanks in Saving Private Ryan. We start with the old man in that one, so we know he lives. Isn’t that why we are watching, to see if he will live?

This movie was far from being Oscar-worthy. I do not even know why it was being considered. This is one of Hanks’ duds. He is great as the congressman, but he is not enough to save this film from its forgettable state. This is a story we should be championing our lawmakers to follow yet the filmmakers made it too dull to believe it is real.

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