Well written, well acted and finely directed film with strong performances by Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts (surprisingly) and an absolutely brilliant piece of work by Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

The film deals with the covert funding of the Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation of that country in the 1980's and the role played by a relatively obscure but influential playboy congressman called Charlie Wilson.

Its based on the book Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History by George Crile, which I went out and bought after seeing the film this weekend.

Hanks, as Wilson, is excellent. Witty, somewhat dissolute, and adept at the deal-making in the corridors of congress, Hanks portrayal of Wilson is thoroughly charming and believable. Roberts, as a wealthy anti-communist socialite is also strong, and an excellent counterpoint to Hanks' role. Many of the lesser characters are also very strong, particularly Ned Beatty, but also Om Puri, and Amy Adams. All of the cast, however, takes a back seat to a spectacular performance by Hoffman as blunt-spoken quasi-rogue CIA analyst Gust Avrakotos, who is abrasive, brutally funny, and the mechanic to Wilson's role as paymaster.

I knock a star off because the film carefully skirts the intriguing question of the ultimate end-game of the Afghani operation. While there are a few subtleties in the dialogue that reference the long-term implications of support for folks like Bin Laden, you have to be paying attention to hear them.