I watched Charlie Wilson’s War last night and I’m glad I didn’t pay $9 to see it in the movie theater. While the performances by Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts & Philip Seymour Hoffman were above par the story for me didn’t grasp me the way I thought it would. I liked the movie but didn’t love it.

I think what I would have liked to see more of is the interaction between Hanks, Roberts and Hoffman. Those were the best scenes, especially between Hanks and Hoffman who plays a CIA operative. Their bantering back and forth was the best part of Charlie Wilson’s War for me.

The story was easy enough to follow. Hanks as Charlie Wilson is a philandering Congressman from Texas who takes special interest in the Afghani mujahideen fight against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. Wilson works with Hoffman and Roberts to raise the amount of the covert operations budget to supply stinger missiles to the Afghanis to destroy Soviet tanks and shoot down helicopters & planes. The outcome being that the Soviets retreat from Afghanistan in 1989 and shortly thereafter the Iron Wall crumbles.

Charlie does try in vain to get funding to rebuild Afghani schools and keep the U.S. involved in Afghanistan rather than just leaving a void to be filled by who knows who…we know now it was filled by the Taliban and the mujahideen whom we supplied with weapons who end up forming Al Queda. It made me wonder what would have happened Charlie hadn’t gotten involved in supplying the mujahideen…would they have been destroyed and Al Queda not exist today? Our legacy in Afghanistan was leaving when the Soviets left without helping in rebuilding their county and building goodwill. As the movie points out, the Afghani people didn’t know that it was the U.S. who supplied the weapons to drive out the Soviets because it was a “covert war.”

I recommend Charlie Wilson’s War but only give it a thumbs up, not a way thumbs up. There were some funny moments especially with Hoffman but the drama part just didn’t capture me. Let me know what you thought of the movie.