Review

Review Date: 30-December-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK and Juicy

Charlie Wilson's War and The Savages (2007)
or, A Phil Hoffman Double Feature

As any lover of movies knows, Philip Seymour Hoffman is an actor who can do just about anything and do it well. Thus the end-of-the-year push finds him in two films which blend comedy and drama, albeit for different ends and with different results.

"Charlie Wilson's War" is a high-profile, fact-based movie in which Hoffman appears opposite Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks. The latter stars as a Texas congressman in the 1980s who loved wine, women, and drugs. He also had a brain and interest in the bigger picture and was therefore receptive when one of his constituents, a filthy rich socialite (Roberts), asked him to involve the United States in Afghanistan's war against the Soviets. (To complete the movie's union of the two mega-stars, she sleeps with him to seal the deal.) Wilson recruited a CIA drudge (Hoffman), worked his connections on various committees, and called in Capitol Hill IOUs to increase American support to the Afghans. This was apparently a major factor in the Soviets' loss in the war and eventual downfall across the globe.

The notion that a wealthy private citizen, a politician of questionable morals, and a spy of indifferent standing brought down the Soviet empire is indeed intriguing. Yet this movie, directed by Mike Nichols, is too cute by half. Most of it plays like a comic "rah!" for the underdogs, whose numbers include displaced Afghans as well as the unappreciated CIA agent and Charlie Wilson himself. Truth be told, there are some funny lines, most of them delivered by Hoffman. But glimpses of harsh reality keep cropping up, foreshadowing the final moments when Wilson learns with dismay that a superpower cannot meddle in another country's affairs without lasting repercussions. (Did I say he had a brain? 'Cause this seems obvious.) The serious turn at the end renders any amusement the audience derived from the rest of the film almost shameful. Was mass condemnation its intention? Or does this picture illustrate that mixing dark and light tones when dealing with large-scale matters is not a good idea?

Hoffman's other serious comedy, "The Savages," fares better on a much smaller scale. He and Laura Linney portray siblings named Jon and Wendy Savage who must tend to their father after he develops dementia. Neither has found personal or professional happiness, nor have they talked to their father in almost 20 years. The movie describes their efforts to move the old man into a nursing home and cope with the emotions that ensue. There are no big epiphanies or reconciliations. "The Savages" feels utterly true to life, which is to say sad and wry and wearisome. Yet the themes of death and family are universal, and writer/director Tamara Jenkins grants her characters some hope. Perhaps they are galvanized by the sight of dying, or find closure in treating with basic decency the man who blighted their childhood, or are relieved to be rid of the psychological burden of his existence. In any case, they face the future with renewed spirit, which in reality is as much as anyone can ask.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.