Julia Roberts plays the sixth-richest woman in Texas, who is deeply religious and very involved in Afghanistan. Since this is a Sorkin script, “religious” is synonymous with “crazy”. And in fact, if she wasn’t specifically identified in the script as being religious, there’s not really any other indication. I’m not convinced her character is based on a real person, as she comes off as a plot convenience. I’m not a big fan of Julia Roberts, and nothing really changed here.Then we’ve got Philip Seymour Hoffman as a maladjusted CIA functionary. I have this weird problem with Hoffman, because I get the feeling that he smells weird and his pants are always covered in mustard stains. (I’m not saying that all of my biases are rational, just that they exist.) I actually liked him here, partly because his character behaves the way that I think Philip Seymour Hoffman does in real life. You know, even when he’s got a good point, you just want him to leave you alone. That guy.
