Plot: This movie, based on a true story, follows Charlie Wilson, a women&liqueur-loving (justifying his choice of secretaries: "you can teach them how to type but you can't teach them how to grow tits") Texan congressman, who gets convinced to visit a refugee camp in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan war. After seeing the atrocities committed by the Russians, he dedicates the next decades of his life to raising funds for the biggest CIA covert operation in history to supply arms to the middle-eastern guerrillas.
My take: This is Vice before Vice that would wish it was Vice if Vice came before this. The main character, as I imagine the real Charlie is to some extent, is a fascinating person, brilliantly portrayed by Tom Hanks and as we know well: fascinating people make good grounds for fascinating movies and it's even better for us (by us I mean the humble viewers) if Tom Hanks is somehow involved. Ending with a great quote from the real-deal Charlie "These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the end game." was one of a few moments in the movie when I felt like it wasn't trying to justify and sugar-coat America's involvement in the Middle-East. And this tear between wanting to believe in righteous intentions and facing the realities of US war crimes and atrocities that followed was a constant presence during the whole seance. At first read, I thought the movie is trying to do quite the opposite and it's just because such an intelligent, well-read individual as myself has blessed its makers with my somewhat-divided (by ironing) attention that it stirs such feelings inside me. But upon later thinking, it struck me that it must be the movie's purposeful manipulation of the plot and characters. It's a strong political statement not only on American government actions and the schemes behind them but on the corruption of congress, emotional incompetence of politicians and lack of foresight/ruthlessness in hindsight of anyone with money in Washington DC. Did I watch this movie just because it had the tag "Cerebral" on Netflix? Possibly. Did it live up to its name? Not exactly, but it definitely left me more educated and troubled than any other recent watch -- not from face value but rather the internal discussions that it begins in the viewer. Not sure why the posters try to put a romantic-drama take on it -- my recommendation would be kill it and let it lay. If you don't want to watch it for the plot, watch it for astronomy: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Amy Adams, John Slattery, Emily Blunt... I guess DiCaprio and Clooney lost their invites.
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