CAST: Tom Hanks (Charlie Wilson), Amy Adams (Bonnie Bach), Julia Roberts (Joanne Herring), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Gust Avrakotos) SCR: Aaron Sorkin DIR: Mike Nichols STUDIO: Universal Pictures MPAA: R for strong language, nudity/sexual content and some drug use. RUNNING TIME: 97 min. OFFICIAL SITE: http://www.charliewilsonswar.net/ IMDb: http://imdb.com/title/tt0472062 In the opening scene of Charlie Wilson's War, Tom Hanks sits in a Vegas hot tub surrounded by topless beauties when something catches his attention: Dan Rather on TV (circa 1981) in Afghanistan detailing their struggles against the brutal Soviet army. That scene tells us everything we need to know about Charlie: his loves his Scotch, his women and has even more hatred for the Soviet occupation. Thus begins a complicated tale that acts as much as Hollywood entertainment as history lesson. As written by Aaron Sorkin, the dialogue frequently crackles with a wit and awareness that belies its clinical structure. The movie is almost too short, but when you consider how ponderous similar stories have unfolded, the brevity is a minor miracle. For Charlie is no mere do-gooder. He's a deeply flawed congressman with a messy record, pending drug charges and a love for alcohol. As embodied by Tom Hanks, we like Charlie, perhaps because we like Hanks. It's fun to watch Hanks cursing and carousing, and in many ways, that is precisely why when he realizes his calling, it is a great moment. Charlie will glad-hand, attend parties, call in favors and woo whoever he can to achieve his goal: to raise money to secretly buy Soviet weaponry to equip the Afghans so that they can beat back their occupier - and as history tells us, that is exactly what Charlie does, with the help of a CIA operative Gust Avrakotos (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), his understaffed group and Texas dynamo Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts). It was Herring who inspired Charlie to get involved with trying to help the mujahideen in the first place - her audacity and ability to pick up the phone and call world leaders coupled with his desire to “kill Russians” is a match made in biopic heaven. Hanks and Roberts have some nice chemistry but only because they talk shop just before and just after sex. The combination of hot-talk and shop talk goes a long way here but it's still not hard to feel a bit shortchanged. Roberts only has a handful of scenes. Hoffman is a live wire as the disgruntled, burly CIA agent and delivers the prescient credo that suggests that by not following up after militarily propping Afghanistan up, that the power vacuum allowed for the Taliban to take hold. The movie never explicitly states that, but in the end, we first find ourselves cheering the deployment of defense weapons and then realizing that maybe, it was not the best “end game.” Charlie Wilson's War is neither cautionary, nor celebratory. We are simply asked to watch and judge for ourselves. But along the way, Hanks carves out a lovable scoundrel of a character who felt compelled to try and make a difference. --reviewed by DENNIS WILLIS