"Charlie Wilson's War" is Mike Nichols on an off day. 97 minutes of keep-a-smile-on-your-face pleasantry, at best, but packing a hell of a performance from Phillip Seymour Hoffman, the film left a number of Aaron Sorkin's best lines on the cutting room floor while coming off much more impotent than one might have expected from a reading of the 145-page script that made the rounds over the past two years. It might be too easy to call it in the "Primary Colors" wheelhouse, but even that is too much of a favor to extend.

But I liked it. It's affable, says something underneath all the scars of editing and re-editing, and, like I said, Phillip Seymour Hoffman is on fire. But one is faced with a certain reality every year during the Oscar season, and that reality is, how much should we really expect from these efforts? Is a little too little? Is a lot too much? I don't know the answer, and frontrunners will be destined and annointed every time the industry builds up toward the song and dance that is the Oscars. Regardless, "Charlie" has a tougher road to hoe for Oscar than expected throughout the season. Maybe Hoffman can make it in, maybe Sorkin's adaptation can find room. I'm more positive on the former than I am on the latter, but I'm 90% sure Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts will get muscled to the outskirts of contention this time around.

But that's just one guy's opinion. I'll get to a proper review in due time, but look for reactions to land like wildfire in the next 12 hours.