Based on the true story of how Charlie Wilson, an alcoholic womaniser and Texas congressman, persuaded the CIA to train and arm resistance fighters in Afghanistan to fend off the Soviet Union. With the help of rogue CIA agent Gust Avrakotos, the two men supplied money, training and a team of military experts that turned the ill-equipped Afghan freedom fighters into a force that brought the Red Army to a stalemate.

In the early 1980s, Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a womanising US congressional representative from Texas who seemed to be in the minor leagues, except for the fact that he is a member of two major foreign policy and covert-ops committees. Nevertheless, prodded by his major conservative supporter Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), Wilson learns about the plight of the people suffering in the brutal Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. With the help of the maverick CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Wilson dedicates his canny political efforts to supply the Afghan Mujahideen with the weapons and support to defeat the Soviet Union. However, Charlie Wilson eventually learns that while military victory can be had there are other consequences of that fight that are ignored.

In one of the better political films released recently, Academy Award-winner Mike Nichols provides solid directing while Emmy Award-winner Aaron Sorkin ("The West Wing") provides a remarkable screenplay that almost perfectly balances comedy and drama. Attention to detail is what makes this film so enjoyable, and the juxtaposition between the two main characters Charlie Wilson and Joanne Herring is so subtle yet meaningful. In one particularly memorable scene (for me), Wilson calls Herring on the phone to enlist her help in persuading Doc Long (Ned Beatty), a Democratic U.S. Congressman, to support their cause. In this scene, we see both ends of the conversation, Herring on the phone at her home, and Wilson on the other end in his office. When the camera cuts to Herring, in the background we can see her two huge dogs lounging around by the pool. When it cuts to Wilson, his fat, ginger-coloured cat is lying lazily on his desk.

In a way, these animals reflect the personalities of their owners - Herring is a go-getting, almost-virulent anti-Communist, while Wilson is a laid-back, comfortable bachelor, happy to go on living a blissful life surrounded by beautiful (and brainy!) women and facing no real challenges or ambitions. All that changes when he teams up with CIA maverick Avrakotos, and on top of the drama that unfolds is rollicking comedy and witty dialogue.

Tom Hanks delivers his best and most enjoyable performance in years, taking a slimy character like Wilson and, with his trademark charm, turning him into a likable guy - even a hero. However, the real standout performance of the film is from Philip Seymour Hoffman. Arguably the finest actor working in the film industry today, Hoffman is scintillating and brilliant. He takes a small supporting role and manages to upstage everyone around him, and it is in the exchanges between his character and Hanks' where the comedy takes off. From his first scene where he's screaming at his boss before violently breaking his window, Hoffman sucks you in. Julia Roberts' performance is mediocre, but she does her part to make the movie engaging and exciting.

It is rare that such a political film about war and anti-communism is able to deliver sparkling wit and at the same time be thoughtful. Even though the movie doesn't make any palpable reference to what is obviously on the audience's minds (how the support for the Mujahideen inevitably led to 9/11), it does go on to show how once all the fireworks are over, people aren't interested anymore in the cause. Once the Soviet Union is defeated, the U.S. isn't concerned about anything else that might be going on. When Wilson tries to get funding to rebuild schools in Afghanistan after the horrible war they fought through, the rest of his peers shrug it off, claiming to have done their job and that it is time to move on.

This movie wonderfully demonstrates how we can laugh and cry about the state the world is in, often at the same time. Just the idea of someone trying to persevere despite the inevitability of bureaucracy getting in the way of true justice is heartening and gives us an idea of how flawed human beings can sometimes change the world. The only letdown for me is the method of censoring the language used in the film. Instead of merely muting the 'F' word, they've cut it out in such a way that I can imagine the film lying across a chopping board and the censorship board hacking away at it with wild abandon and no structure. Why is it that a violent, bloody movie like "John Rambo" is spared such treatment (they civilly muted the language rather than hacking it to bits), and this intelligent, thought-provoking drama has to be mutilated?