‘Charlie Wilson’ packs insight underneath light mood

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In theaters

CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR, directed by Mike Nichols, written by Aaron Sorkin, 97 minutes, rated R.

The new Mike Nichols movie, “Charlie Wilson’s War,” takes us back to the Middle East, this time Afghanistan, where the mood is light in spite of the blood being spilled by the Soviet Army.

Based on a true story and set in 1980, just after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, the film follows Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), the Democratic congressman from Texas who finds himself being urged to help the Afghan people by one Joanna Herring (Julia Roberts), a right-wing Houston socialite whose claim to fame, at least at the time, is that she was the sixth richest person in Texas.

That’s quite a distinction to have, and Roberts plays her accordingly – her Joanna is all arched eyebrows, cinched suits and blonde hair the size of a national forest (though one assumes beneath all that hairspray, it would be difficult to find a renewable resource).

Since her character also is Charlie’s part-time lover – he has a lot of those, most of whom he meets in hot tubs filled with cocaine-snorting strippers – Charlie feels the pressure to move forward with her request.

After all, money is money, and since Joanna has plenty of it, the idea that Charlie might one day be without it is unthinkable. Best to do what his major donors demand of him. In this case, it meant raising the funds necessary to supply the mujahedeen with the guns they needed to eliminate the Russians from Afghanistan.

Of course, history tells us that by doing so, Wilson essentially supported those who formed al-Qaida, but hey – what did he know? He was just working for the woman and, after visiting one of the Afghan outpost camps where he comes face-to-face with the dead, dismembered and dying, it’s also true that he was working to do what he believed was right. The Soviets needed to be stopped. With the help of his assistant Bonnie (Amy Adams) – not to mention CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman, excellent), who had the sort of critical insight and connections Wilson otherwise lacked – Wilson raised more than $1 billion in secret CIA funding to help shut the Soviets down.

The film, which Aaron Sorkin (“The West Wing”) based on George Crile’s book, is appealingly limber, a war movie with winks. It’s as comfortable darting around the bombs tossed at swank cocktail parties as it is dodging those tossed overseas.

After the dark, biting banter that drove Nichols’ last film, “Closer,” “Charlie Wilson’s War” is akin to a playground. The writing is just as intelligent, but nobody is stung by the words.

This is a movie in which Hoffman’s Avrakotos can go berserk in his superior’s office, smashing windows and hurling insults, but the scene plays for comedy – there’s no danger to it. It’s also a movie that has a good sense for the times, but which sees them as less dire than the situation we’re in now. It condescends to the past, true, but the film’s complication is that it also has great affection for it, likely because it views those days as simpler than the worldwide mess we’re in now. The emphasis on this war, after all, is personalized, and what Charlie Wilson learns from it could change the world now.

Grade: B+

On DVD, HD DVD

THE HEARTBREAK KID, directed by Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly, written by Scot Armstrong, Leslie Dixon, the Farrellys and Kevin Barnett, 115 minutes, rated R.

Since “The Heartbreak Kid” is from the Farrelly brothers, creators of “There’s Something About Mary,” “Dumb and Dumber” and “Osmosis Jones,” the natural question is: How will they get people talking this time around? What outrageous scenes will they unleash upon the movie-going public to generate a buzz?

For the Farrellys, who likely lose sleep over such dilemmas, this time out it might be the way one character’s deviated septum allows for any number of grotesqueries to spew from her nose and onto herself and others. Or perhaps it will be how that same character’s more personal parts are revealed in a jarring onslaught of hirsute surprise.

Of course, the idea that nobody will react is the air of desperation that hangs over the movie and that too often suffocates it. In this remake of Elaine May’s 1972 comedy of the same name, the question isn’t how much is too much. Instead, the question is how much is necessary to startle laughter from an audience that, at this point, is more difficult to shock than ever.

Ben Stiller is Eddie, a single San Francisco businessman who, at 40, is feeling pressure from his father (Jerry Stiller) and best friend (Rob Corddry) to tie the knot. Eddie’s ex-fiancee recently was married at a wedding that humiliated him to no end, so when he meets the lovely Lila (Malin Akerman, channeling Cameron Diaz) marriage is quick to ensue.

Too quick. On their honeymoon in Mexico, Lila begins to irritate Eddie in ways that make him question his decision to marry her – she likes to sing in the car, for instance, and her interest in sex makes Eddie feel uneasy. When Lila gets a nasty sunburn and must stay in their hotel room to heal, it allows Eddie to wander and to fall in love with Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), whom he decides is the real woman of his dreams after only two days in her presence.

And so begins a series of manufactured misunderstandings, with Eddie deceiving Lila, Miranda and Miranda’s family so he can spend more time with Miranda. Nice guy? Not on your life, and while the movie initially tries to fool you into thinking otherwise, its last scene tells a rather different tale, one that fractures the movie beyond repair.

Grade: C+

V

isit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

DVD Corner

Renting a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases. Those capitalized and in bold print are new to stores this week.

Akeelah and the Bee – B+

Bridge to Terabithia – B+

Evening – C+

Hairspray – A-

HALLOWEEN – D

Happy Feet – A-

Live Free or Die Hard – B-

MAN ON FIRE: BLU-RAY – B

Reign Over Me – C-

RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION: DVD, BLU-RAY – C-

SEAQUEST DSV: SEASON TWO – C

The Simpsons Movie – B+

SHOOT ‘EM UP: DVD, BLU-RAY – B

Shooter – C+

Surf’s Up – B+

TMNT – C

300 – C-

The Transformers – B+