Great story. Great acting. Great direction. Beautifully shot and a heckuva lot of fun to watch.
Yet tragically flawed.
Maybe it's simply too much to ask for George Crile's stunning book Charlie Wilson's War to be be condensed to 100 seemless minutes on the big screen. Billy Clyde has read the book at least three times and is Charlie Wilson's friend. He still scratches his head about this U.S.-Pakistani-Israeli-Egyptian successful plot to end the Cold War. You know, the one that the American public never noticed and the pols didn't talk about. The one in which a talented but easily distracted Congressman from nowhere in East Texas ran a billion dollar a year campaign that successfully destroyed the Evil Empire.
Let me say upfront that the film is a hoot. Two hoots. And a holler. Julia Roberts was very good, Tom Hanks was great, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Best Supporting Acting statue should be Fed-Exed to him right now this very instant. Mike Nichols, predictably, directed a charming film, and Aaron Sorkin, who shares many of Charlie Wilson's good and bad traits, did a superb job of converting Crile's book to a screen format.
But who the hell edited this picture? And why? May those of us you care enough to watch a three hour version be allowed to get on our hands and knees and see what rests on the cutting room floor?
Don't get me wrong. It's a great movie. It's just disjointed to the point where, at least several times, you have to scratch your head and think WTF. There's no predicate for that. Where did THAT come from? Who? What? Really? That kind of stuff.
Enough about what's wrong with the film. Here's the good stuff.
Tom Hanks, who I've spent 20 years trying to dislike as a actor, turns in yet another great performance. It would be easy to overplay the role of Charlie Wilson and turn him into a caricature. Or to miss the essence of Wilson and miss the essence of the story. Hanks gets the man and gets the part. To the extent there are shortcomings, it ain't Hanks fault.
Julia Roberts' portrayal of Houston socialite and talk show host Joanne Herring is as charming and over the top as a River Oaks Christmas party during a boom in the oil fields. Herring is a woman who takes no shit. She gives it. And Roberts nails the part.
The greatest acting accolades belong to Hoffman. He plays blue-collar semi-rogue CIA agent Gust Avrakotos and is nothing short of brilliant. Billy Clyde, being a professional hater of the State Department, CIA, DIA, NSA, etc., just delights in knowing that a Charlie and a Gust -- two underestimated guys that the establishment viewed as back benchers -- did what all those bureaucracies could not. Strike a blow for the common man.
Whether you've read the book or not, whether you know the story or not, the film is very accessible to the masses. There's sex, drugs, rock and roll, violence, gun play, secretive government plots, swarmy foreign folks, strippers, hot tubs, classified Congressional hearings, wimpy bureaucrats getting bitch slapped, belly dancing, old ladies in Lufkin playing dominoes, tuxedo affairs at the Kennedy Center ... well you the gist. All of it is relevant. But maybe this story is just too darn complex to tell in 100 minutes.
Besides the cockamamie editing, my only real problem with the film is the gratuitous lecture at the end that attempts (and fails) to place this great escapade into a current geopolitical setting -- and do so in about 30 seconds. The story took place in the 1980s. The tale is complicated enough as it is. Trying to place it in a real-time context just muddies the already murky waters even more. Stop. Please stop.
Don't think this is a negative review. Far from it. Billy Clyde awards it 3 1/2 stars. It's fun, funny, and altogether larger than life -- the things we want when we turn off our brains in a dark theater for a couple hours. By all means, go see Charlie Wilson's War. You'll be glad you did.
Yet tragically flawed.
Maybe it's simply too much to ask for George Crile's stunning book Charlie Wilson's War to be be condensed to 100 seemless minutes on the big screen. Billy Clyde has read the book at least three times and is Charlie Wilson's friend. He still scratches his head about this U.S.-Pakistani-Israeli-Egyptian successful plot to end the Cold War. You know, the one that the American public never noticed and the pols didn't talk about. The one in which a talented but easily distracted Congressman from nowhere in East Texas ran a billion dollar a year campaign that successfully destroyed the Evil Empire.
Let me say upfront that the film is a hoot. Two hoots. And a holler. Julia Roberts was very good, Tom Hanks was great, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Best Supporting Acting statue should be Fed-Exed to him right now this very instant. Mike Nichols, predictably, directed a charming film, and Aaron Sorkin, who shares many of Charlie Wilson's good and bad traits, did a superb job of converting Crile's book to a screen format.
But who the hell edited this picture? And why? May those of us you care enough to watch a three hour version be allowed to get on our hands and knees and see what rests on the cutting room floor?
Don't get me wrong. It's a great movie. It's just disjointed to the point where, at least several times, you have to scratch your head and think WTF. There's no predicate for that. Where did THAT come from? Who? What? Really? That kind of stuff.
Enough about what's wrong with the film. Here's the good stuff.
Tom Hanks, who I've spent 20 years trying to dislike as a actor, turns in yet another great performance. It would be easy to overplay the role of Charlie Wilson and turn him into a caricature. Or to miss the essence of Wilson and miss the essence of the story. Hanks gets the man and gets the part. To the extent there are shortcomings, it ain't Hanks fault.
Julia Roberts' portrayal of Houston socialite and talk show host Joanne Herring is as charming and over the top as a River Oaks Christmas party during a boom in the oil fields. Herring is a woman who takes no shit. She gives it. And Roberts nails the part.
The greatest acting accolades belong to Hoffman. He plays blue-collar semi-rogue CIA agent Gust Avrakotos and is nothing short of brilliant. Billy Clyde, being a professional hater of the State Department, CIA, DIA, NSA, etc., just delights in knowing that a Charlie and a Gust -- two underestimated guys that the establishment viewed as back benchers -- did what all those bureaucracies could not. Strike a blow for the common man.
Whether you've read the book or not, whether you know the story or not, the film is very accessible to the masses. There's sex, drugs, rock and roll, violence, gun play, secretive government plots, swarmy foreign folks, strippers, hot tubs, classified Congressional hearings, wimpy bureaucrats getting bitch slapped, belly dancing, old ladies in Lufkin playing dominoes, tuxedo affairs at the Kennedy Center ... well you the gist. All of it is relevant. But maybe this story is just too darn complex to tell in 100 minutes.
Besides the cockamamie editing, my only real problem with the film is the gratuitous lecture at the end that attempts (and fails) to place this great escapade into a current geopolitical setting -- and do so in about 30 seconds. The story took place in the 1980s. The tale is complicated enough as it is. Trying to place it in a real-time context just muddies the already murky waters even more. Stop. Please stop.
Don't think this is a negative review. Far from it. Billy Clyde awards it 3 1/2 stars. It's fun, funny, and altogether larger than life -- the things we want when we turn off our brains in a dark theater for a couple hours. By all means, go see Charlie Wilson's War. You'll be glad you did.
3 comments:
George Crile. See? I read the whole thing.
-rr
That's the first mistake I've ever made. My bad.
Great review. I've got to read the book now. I'm a pretty big Charlie fan myself.
Post a Comment