Charlie Wilson’s War was setup to be a very good film from the start. With Mike Nichols directing, Aaron Sorkin writing the screenplay, Tom Hanks producing and starring alongside Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman, the names were enough to get some people in the theater. The star power along with the as-to-be-expected world-class writing and directing made a story that should be a difficult pill to swallow—a historical account of the United States’ covert involvement in the mid-1980’s Soviet-Afghan war—much more accessible.
Hank’s and Hoffman’s characters (Congressmen Charlie Wilson and CIA Agent Gust Avrakotos, respectively) are based on very eccentric men which comes through—often amusingly—in Sorkin’s script and their performances. However, as noted by Cinematical’s James Rocchi, “[the movie] stops being funny when you realize we're living in the sequel.” Subtle foreshadowing, capped by a final quote from the real Congressman, reminds us of the role Afghanistan plays in the post Cold-War world.
Less than 24-hours after seeing Charlie Wilson’s War, I made a complete one-eighty and went to see Joe Wright’s Atonement.
Atonement was some great storytelling to be sure, but definitely calculated and tedious. This, depending on your demeanor, can either add or detract from the experience.
True to form for a purely literary work that was later adapted to film, the story started out slow, heavy with texture and foreshadowing, before finally arriving at well-conceived conflict. Then, again, the second act crawled for a little while. However, with only a few minutes remaining the story went somewhere I did not expect. I’m not in the habit of ruining spoilers, especially in films I genuinely enjoyed, so I’m just going to say that the last 15 minutes turn entire the entire story on its head. Fortunately (and quite by design) the slow build-up keeps the audience very empathetic to the characters.
It’s hard to talk about Atonement without mentioning the exceptional performance of James McAvoy. I was floored by his Golden Globe Nominated performance in The Last King of Scotland last year; and Atonement was definitely an equal accomplishment.
Charlie Wilson's War
(4/5)
Atonement
(4/5)Atonement
(4/5)
