At a concise and seemingly amputated 97 minutes, "Charlie Wilson's War" may have surprised more than a few of tonight's press-heavy crowd when the credits suddenly rolled at Universal's first major west coast exhibition of the film this evening.

That's not to say they didn't like it (judging by a modest but warm round of applause), or that there isn't anything to like about the film.  There was plenty of laughter throughout (mostly at the lines delivered by Phillip Seymour Hoffman's cut-throat Gust Avrakotos) and a generaly air of enjoyment in the crowd.  But when reactions start to hit the net later this evening, tomorrow morning or later into the week (here's a knee-jerk from yours truly), I expect a number of the Oscar-watching readership to realize that we're all guilty of building buzz too strongly, hustling to anoint something a "frontrunner" based on pedigree, all in the name of forecasting a scenario that proves itself malleable and ignorant of hard and fast rules year in and year out.

Anyway, I won't make any declarations in this space, but we'll see what the critics and awards analysts have to say soon enough.  For now, Tom O'Neil, who was at the New York screening of the film earlier this evening, has some thoughts up.