This, apparently, is what has been missing from all of this year’s movies about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East: humor. It seems like a simple thing, but the reason that Charlie Wilson’s War is just about the only one of these films worth seeing is that it actually cares about entertaining its audience, about giving them something to laugh at and have fun with before hitting them over the head with how bad things are.
And don’t worry; this movie does eventually hit you over the head, as can only be expected from screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and one of the most entertainingly self-righteous political dramatists around. He doesn’t miss the opportunity to oversell his point about how the lack of follow-through by the U.S. in Afghanistan in the 1980s directly contributed to the mess we’re in today in the Middle East. Luckily, he applies a much lighter touch getting there than was evident in his recent TV debacle, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and much of the credit for that can likely be given to director Mike Nichols.
Nichols made a similar semi-factual political dramedy in 1998 with Primary Colors, and War has much of the same farcical tone with an undercurrent of seriousness. It even has its own womanizing good-ol’-boy politician, the titular representative from Texas, played with exuberance by Tom Hanks. It’s nice to see Hanks back in comedic mode and not looking entirely uncomfortable there, as he did in The Ladykillers. Instead, he puts his enormous charm to use as the seemingly oblivious politician (who indulges in hot-tubbing in Vegas and has a stable of sexy assistants, one of whom is nicknamed “Jailbait”) who latched onto the conflict between the Russians and the Afghans in the 1980s and made it into his personal crusade, increasing funding for covert operations and, as the movie would have it, becoming almost single-handedly responsible for repelling the Russians from Afghanistan.
Although we follow Wilson to Afghanistan on a number of occasions, the film’s perspective is resolutely Washington-centric; at its best, it’s like an especially good episode of The West Wing. Wilson teams up with a hot-tempered, unconventional CIA agent (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and he’s bankrolled in part by a brash, politically conservative Southern belle (Julia Roberts), although he himself is a Democrat. Sorkin and Nichols take pains to show the horrors the Afghan people endure at the hands of the Russian army, but the film’s real energy is in its portrayal of backroom deals and verbal sparring matches, the kind of thing Sorkin has always excelled at.
The film is an interesting contrast to the sober and not at all amusing The Kite Runner, also opening this week, which gives a glimpse into what life was like in Afghanistan when the Russians invaded. For all its posturing about how we inadvertently fostered terrorism by not funding infrastructure in Afghanistan after the Russians left, War doesn’t really care all that much about Afghanistan, either; it cares about Charlie Wilson, his charisma, his integrity, his commitment to fighting for people whom no one else paid any attention to. The Kite Runner shows those people, largely unaware of the geopolitical forces leading to the invasion of their homeland, displaced from everything they knew and as far removed as possible from the corridors of elite American politics.
And yet The Kite Runner is so glum, so serious, that it’s much easier to find sympathy for the wealthy, uncouth Charlie Wilson than it is to connect with Kite Runner protagonist Amir, a haunted, introverted and humorless man who’s endured far more hardship but seems unable to have any fun. It sounds cruel to put it in such stark terms, but it illustrates why, until its rushed and preachy ending, Charlie Wilson’s War is more successful than any of this year’s other political dramas: While they beat you down with how serious and bad things are, ordering you to care, Sorkin and Nichols show you a likeable, fun guy who understands the seriousness and the badness, and doesn’t give in to despair. If he cares, shouldn’t you?
Charlie Wilson’s War
*** 1/2
Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Julia Roberts
Directed by Mike Nichols
Rated R
Opens Friday