It’s not often that movies based on someone’s life are funny. I Love you Philip Morris is one example I can think of, but so is Charlie Wilson’s War, despite the serious subject of the tension that was brewing in Afghanistan between the local people and the invading Russian army.

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a politician from Texas who lives a very luxurious life while he has his seat in the American Congress. He likes his women, booze and drugs and really has fun with it all. When he sees the situation in Afghanistan on TV something changes. He decides to do something about it and finds out that America is hardly spending any money on getting the Russians out of Afghanistan.

He’s helped by Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) who, although she’s not a politician, does know the right people to get things done. There is also help from CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who really doesn’t care what the people within the CIA think of him. Together they try to make some money available for Afghanistan. Continue reading →