Neal Vitale Reviews: Charlie Wilson's War

4 out of 5 stars

With much of the work of writer Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The American President, TV's "The West Wing," Broadway's "The Farnsworth Invention"), the star of the production is the writing. Charlie Wilson's War is no exception. A top-notch cast - Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Amy Adams - does a fine job delivering the lines, and veteran Mike Nichols directs a well-paced and attractive film, but it barely matters. Sorkin's clever dialogue and story-telling are the focus of Charlie Wilson's War. Though this true-life tale of behind-the-scenes political wrangling to support anti-Soviet efforts in Afghanistan in the 1980s - including the sobering cautionary note that the battle is not just conducted with weapons - could just as easily have been a TV show or a play, it is eminently entertaining.