Tom Hanks has one of his better roles as Charlie Wilson, a real-life former Congressman, a Texas Democrat who raised millions to arm Afghanistan fighters against the Soviet Union. The film details the clever maneuvering that enabled him to do so. The irony, of course, is that very people we armed eventually turned into our current Afghan enemies. By the end, the film has slipped in an observation that a problem is our tendency to leave instead of investing money and determination to see that living and educational conditions are improved to the point of depriving opportunities for forces like the Taliban to exploit.

But one can’t put too much weight on the film. It is after all an entertainment, and its underlying cynicism, highlighted by charismatic performances, makes this one of the more enjoyable and important films in the current rush of releases. Hanks enacts Wilson as a smoothie who could convince anyone of anything and as a charming playboy always ready and eager to bed attractive women. One of them is Julia Roberts as Texas society dame Joanne Herring. She’s right wing and strongly anti-Communist. She’s also attractive and manipulative, and Roberts is terrific delineating the lady with her flirtatious ways and ability to use people for her political ends. Her Texas drawl perfected for the occasion is a show in itself.

These days any film with Philip Seymour Hoffman already has a leg up. Here he plays a C.I.A. man who is laid back but scheming, and connives with Wilson to figure out ways to get high powered arms to the Afghans resisting the Russians. There is much humor in the manipulations, which involve conning the superb Ned Beatty as a House subcommittee chairman into getting on board, and making an ally of Om Puri as President Zia of Pakistan. Many of the scenes are as delightfully funny as they are outrageously duplicitous.