Not so much disappointing as it is simply perplexing, Charlie Wilson’s War never finds solid footing with its mix of political/historical critique and black comedy, not to mention the fact that it feels like huge chunks of it wound up on the cutting room floor. Tom Hanks does a nice job as the hard-drinking, smooth-talking Texas congressman who became the unlikely architect of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980s, but it’s Philip Seymour Hoffman who steals the show as a belligerent CIA operative. His comic timing is superb, and it’s too bad it wasn’t put to use in a better film. (Angelika, Dallas, TX)