Charlie Wilson’s War

I need to start this off by saying, “I heart Aaron Sorkin’s TV shows” and I’ve seen every episode of all of them. Because I’ve only seen two of his movies, I can only say, “I heart one of Aaron Sorkin’s movies”. And that one movie I heart, does not share its title with this post.

Maybe I was expecting too much. Maybe I wanted the fast-paced, witty exchanges between characters. Or maybe it was too fast that I missed everything important. Maybe I wanted more character development. Or maybe I had enough character development and didn’t care for the characters. Luckily, the characters were based upon real people. So it’s not like he came up with their personalities on his own and made them boring. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that maybe any interesting thing about these characters I viewed, Sorkin developed and the events didn’t really happen. Maybe I wanted less lingering shots of women’s butts. Maybe I’m just jealous.

Maybe I expected the war scenes’ visual effects to at least not look like helicopters were shooting lasers instead of bullets – maybe I should have expected it to look like Star Wars instead. Maybe I should be less critical and not expect great effects from a movie that isn’t focused on the action. Maybe the story should have been more interesting and I wouldn’t care about the useless visual effects being sub-par. Maybe I *am* glad that there were a few funny Sorkin-esque moments between characters. Maybe I wish there were more. Maybe I’m longing for Bradley Whitford to show up and save the movie. Maybe he never comes. Maybe no “Sorkin normals” show up to save the movie. Maybe I’m still pissed that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip got canceled. That’s probably it.

Maybe I could have witnessed Philip Seymour Hoffman’s great performance, I kept hearing about – if only I could understand a word he was saying. Maybe I still liked him even though he was talking gibberish. Maybe Julia Roberts could have finally won me over. Probably not. Maybe Tom Hanks did a pretty decent job.

Maybe I felt lost throughout the whole movie. Maybe I didn’t *want* to understand. Maybe I needed subtitles on.

Or maybe I’ll just give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.

Maybe I should wait to post this until morning. Maybe I should sleep on it. Maybe I’ll get rid of some maybes if I wait until tomorrow. But maybe I’d add more. Maybe, I’ll do what I want. It’s my blog, after all.

5 Responses to “Charlie Wilson’s War”

  1. Mike Says:

    Maybe you’ll be mad at me when I say I kind of enjoyed the movie. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t expecting as much from Aaron Sorkin as you were. Maybe, even though I loved Sports Night, I haven’t taken the time to watch the West Wing (and maybe I know I should but just haven’t been able to thus far). And maybe I should get some sleep because it’s 12:45, but maybe I’m not tired.

    And maybe I wasn’t as upset about the lingering shots of women’s butts. And maybe I very much agree with you that the war footage was definitely a downer in this movie, even if it wasn’t meant to be a war footage type of film.

    And maybe I still don’t like Julia Roberts, maybe I still like Philip Seymour Hoffman, and maybe I was able to re-like Tom Hanks, as usual.

    And maybe I’m actually going to go to sleep now. Maybe this was a unique movie review too. Ok, I give up. It was.

  2. Jackie Says:

    Now I’m confused… ;) I enjoy reading your reviews!

  3. m!les Says:

    I don’t mean to do the “Maybe” thing, but maybe it’s the director. I’m used to seeing an Aaron Sorkin-written script directed by Thomas Schlamme. I have nothing against Mike Nichols, but I think tainted my experience a little bit. Maybe it’s that this was an adaptation and not an original screenplay. Whatever it was, it was a little disappointing, but it only makes me more eager for Aaron Sorkin’s next TV series. Nations, anyone?

  4. dan Says:

    I liked the movie quite a bit. I have to admit that I was warned about the girl butts and lousy war footage, so I went in expecting it. I enjoyed that it was based on a true story, and a story that isn’t told very often (if at all). So I felt I learned a lot from watching the movie. Mr Hoffman was fantastic.

  5. yo mama Says:

    I love Julia Roberts. I love Tom Hanks. I hated this movie. I didn’t even finish watching it.

    Maybe it was because I was sick when I tried watching it. No maybe about it- I don’t plan to ever watch it.
    …I still love Julia & Tom

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