(1) Menswear Moment first: I absolutely love the unique shirts that Charlie Wilson wears, in real life and accurately re-created for the movie, described at Ask Andy as "button-down dress shirts with epaulets (apparently to keep his suspenders in place), french cuffs and buttoned flap pockets." The collars and cuffs were often contrasting, too. Now that is in-your-face style! The shirts were made for Wilson at Hamilton Customer Shirts in Houston. I'd kill for one. (Naturally, some of the Ask Andy types are appalled by them.)
(2) The shirts are a clue to the personality, of course. Something about Charlie Wilson's sort of larger-than-life Texan personality appeals to me, in a way that alpha males usually don't. Why is some self-confidence winning and some repulsive? It has to do with generosity of attitude, I think; and in my experience many Texans are indeed generous and hearty in a way that makes you smile at their egos instead of wincing at them. They spend freely, they admire easily, they have a high old time. Their self-possession doesn't take anything away from you. The self-confidence of the sociopathic CEO type that I mentioned in the last post is, by contrast, off-putting. For the particular CEO I dealt with, it wasn't enough for him to be smart; everyone else had to be stupid.
(3) It's nice to see Tom Hanks playing something other than a purely saintly part. Wilson is a good guy, for sure, but he knows how to have fun; the petty churchly moralities inveighing against sex, drink, drugs, gambling, etc., mean nothing to him.
(4) The entire cast is in fine form, actually; you can tell that Philip Seymour Hoffman is having a blast, and John Slattery does a nice warm-up for his Mad Men role. Overall, the film is very entertaining and goes down easily.
Breakfast is being served
2 years ago
