There are serious movie lovers out there believe that director Mike Nichols is incapable of making a bad film. His films such as The Graduate, Silkwood, Postcards from the Edge, Working Girl and Closer demonstrate a fine understanding of cinematic medium and a extraordinary ability to draw out the best performances from his actors. Even lesser actors such as Melanie Griffith and Cher shone under his direction, each nabbing an acting nomination at the Oscars.

His new film Charlie Wilson's War is not easy to digest for audiences who not familiar with or not interested in world politics. Written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), it concerns events in 1987 when the United States was fighting the Cold War.

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a congressman who becomes interested in the events in Afghanistan. Ever since the Russian invaded the Muslim country in 1979, the Mujahideen freedom fighters have been struggling to rid their country of the invaders.
Charlie is staunchly anti-Communist, along with a wealthy socialite (Julia Roberts) and a CIA maverick (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Determined to help United State win the Cold War, the three of them help raise the amount of aid poured into the Mujahideen cause from US$5 million to a whopping US$1 billion. But history as would soon reveal, this American money used to train Islamic fighters encouraged the worst strain of Islamic terrorism and aided the rise of the maestro of evil, Osama bin Laden.

Charlie Wilson's War is a lucid, intelligent and entertaining film for discerning audiences. Nearly every line is a stroke of wit, nearly every performance a small triumph. It is a film that you want to watch, think about and talk about.