‘Hey, Tom, what say we forget this flick and get ourselves right souced?’ — Philip Seymour Hoffman (r) and Tom Hanks

Charlie Wilson's War

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Artists often feel as though they have a responsibility to try to comment on the world as they see it, and to infuse their work with a meaning that resonates on a universal level. When a major world event occurs — like, say, the American invasion of Iraq — there's a sudden explosion of event-related artwork. And most of it is utter crap.

Banal films like Rendition and Lions for Lambs are proof that a keen interest and artistic drive are not enough to provide a meaningful commentary on an issue. It takes intelligence, months of research and a complex understanding of both sides of an issue — qualities that most artists are either unable or unwilling to imbue in their work. Praise be to your deity of choice, then, that Aaron Sorkin's (A Few Good Men, The West Wing) latest screenplay, Charlie Wilson's War, has all three in abundance.

Credit should go to director Mike Nicholls (The Graduate, Angels in America) as well, though his workmanlike visual style and general unobtrusiveness hardly lend themselves well to illustration. No, this is very much an Aaron Sorkin project, and all his usual hallmarks are here — the humour, the flawed-yet-likable characters and the uncanny knowledge of every esoteric detail of the American parliament and military.

Set just following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the ’80s, the story follows Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), a good-natured but somewhat irresponsible Texan senator, as he all but single-handedly fights back the red menace. While the story is set 20 years ago, make no mistake: Sorkin's script is about the present Middle Eastern situation. Wilson, as a metaphor for the United States in general, is a genuinely well-intentioned womanizing alcoholic. He wants to help the displaced Afghan refugees, honestly and compassionately wants to help them, but his actions inevitably pave the road for religious radicalism and, well, all the other nastiness associated with the Taliban.

Unlike so many liberal-slanted message movies, Sorkin never lowers himself to repeatedly slamming his fist in his cereal and crying “fuck Bush.” He loves his country, and it comes through in every word, every action of his characters. Still, he's more than willing to admit she can fuck up from time to time.

While the script prizes intellect over emotion in the best possible way, that isn't to say it's soulless. Even without its intelligent, subtle political commentary, Charlie Wilson's War is the funniest Capitol Hill film since Mamet and Levinson's Wag the Dog. Philip Seymour Hoffman is perfect — as usual — as foul-mouthed CIA agent Gustav Avrakotos, the perfect foil to Hanks's frat boy portrayal of Wilson. The scene in which Wilson attempts to deflect an investigation into his personal ethical practice by a pre-mayoral Rudy Giuliani (ironic in light of the latter's recent sexscapades) while simultaneously having a conversation about weapons funding with Avrakotos is one of the wryest in any film this year, period.

Any problems with Charlie Wilson's War are nitpicks. Predictably, it does get a little heavy-handed when it begins discussing religious radicalism's effects on politics, but it's clever enough to examine this on both the American and Afghan sides, so it's a forgivable flaw. The fact is, Charlie Wilson's War is not only the best political comedy in the past 10 years, it also has the most memorable sub-textual discussion since Syriana. Like Charlie himself, the film is boisterous, good-natured and — most importantly — has its head about as far as it can get from the inside of its own ass. The world needs more artists like Sorkin.