Mike Nichols thriller, written beautifully by West Wing scribe Aaron Sorkin, returns the director to the world of US politics first witnessed in his Primary Colours.

In a departure from his usual roles Tom Hanks plays Charlie Wilson, a US congressman who is a charming, cocaine-smoking, wisecracking scotch-drinking womaniser. He's cynical, darkly subversive, but underneath is a rebel looking for a cause. When he finds one, he's thoroughly tenacious when it comes to getting things done.

The film is based on a true story about a congressman who fought a single-handed battle, aided by a Houston socialite (Julia Roberts) and a maverick CIA agent (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who join forces to find a means of funding the Afghan rebels with significant weaponry in their struggle to take on the Soviets.

In order to truly make a difference in this war-torn theatre, Wilson has to cut through reams of international red-tape whilst delicately ensuring that his own reputation isn't flawed by a separate smear campaign about him dealing with drugs and dodgy sorts in a nightclub.

This is a refreshingly intelligent story which will appeal to anyone who enjoyed the recent George Clooney blockbuster Michael Clayton. It's got some great dialogue with some sharp lines from Hoffman and Hanks, but all three characters display impressive intelligence - I'm sure female A-listers must have been queuing up to play the socialite role that Julia Roberts snapped up just as the roles for Hoffman and Hanks are meaty ones too.

It's one of those films that you warm to early on because it has an air of authenticity about how U.S. foreign policy evolves that rarely makes it into the news.

Charlie Wilson's War is one of several new films where America is looking introspectively on the war on terror. We've had Lions for Lambs (which of course bombed through poor reviews) and there's also Grace Is Gone and The Battle for Haditha to come.

In this case, some might consider Nichols is glorifying a trio of warmongers, but the battle with the Russians was a tremendously uneven one for the Afghans. Wilson merely leveled the playing field, arming the Afghans to give the marauding Soviets a severe shock.

Charlie Wilson is one of those films that you'll probably want to see more than once, just to pick up on some of the sparky dialogue that you may miss on a first viewing.

What you'll particularly like is seeing Hanks in a much darker role than expected, and getting able support both from a feisty Julia Roberts and a deliciously subversive Philip Seymour Hoffman. They make a wickedly funny trio plotting in high-stake poker games of international politics and finding ways to make things happen. It's fun to watch.