Directed by: Ben Affleck
Written by: Chris Terrio (based on the article "The Great Escape" by Joshuah Bearman and the book "The Master of Disguise" by Antonio Mendez)
I like Ben Affleck. Despite the enormous amount of mockery and parodying the man has taken over the years (some of it lighthearted, some of it scathing), I've always found him to be an incredibly talented actor and screenwriter. Of course, when you've been the lead star for craptacular blockbusters such as Pearl Harbor and Armageddon, atrocious bombs such as Gigli and Surviving Christmas, and one half of the unfortunate media frenzy known as "Bennifer", your positive and well-received accomplishments tend to be slightly overshadowed in the process.
And it's a shame, considering the fact that the man is a Best Original Screenplay Oscar winner with his BFF Matt Damon, a skilled comedic and dramatic actor, and a generous humanitarian. Of course, everyone makes mistakes, even movie stars; in this case, it was taking on paycheck roles in horrible movies and dating J. Lo. But even when Affleck was at his lowest, he took his failures in stride and jumpstarted a career resurrection, first with a terrific supporting role as George Reeves in the murder mystery Hollywoodland, and then adding a new role to his resume: Ben Affleck, Director.
Affleck surprised everyone with his solid freshman effort Gone Baby Gone in 2007, and followed it up in 2010 with the superb heist flick The Town. Now Mr. Affleck has pulled off the hat trick in his Eastwood-esque career renaissance with Argo, a tense, terrific docudrama that chronicles a relatively unknown government operation that took place during one of the most calamitous episodes in the history of American foreign relations.
Tehran, 1979. A revolution is in full swing after the U.S.-backed leader of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, is deposed and exiled by anti-American militants. The American embassy in Tehran is violently seized by the militants, with most of the diplomats and workers taken hostage, except for six who sneak out under the Iranians' noses: Joe and Kathy Stafford (Scoot McNairy and Kerry Bishe), Robert Anders (Tate Donovan), Mark and Cora Lijek (Christopher Denham and Clea DuVall), and Lee Schatz (Rory Cochrane). The six Americans secretly take refuge in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber), but are otherwise trapped in a country that wants them imprisoned or worse.
Despite the newly formed Islamic Republic of Iran being unaware of the six Americans' escape, the American State Department is frantically thinking of a means to extract them from the country. CIA supervisor Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston) recruits specialist Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) to devise a plot to save the embassy workers. After several ideas fizzle out, Mendez watches Battle of the Planet of the Apes on television and is inspired with an idea that's so crazy that it just might work.
Mendez proposes that he poses as a Canadian film producer scouting locations in Iran for a low-budget science fiction film, and he would provide the embassy workers with fake credentials that would give them the identities of his fellow Canadian film crew members. Despite serious skepticism from the higher-ups, Mendez gets the go-ahead. Creating a fake movie studio with legendary producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) and makeup guru John Chambers (John Goodman), Mendez finds a discarded script for a sci-fi film called Argo, and sets out to Iran to save the American refugees.
As Iranian authorities become dangerously close to discovering the identities of the missing embassy workers, Mendez must race against time and ensure that his ruse succeeds in getting his fellow countrymen out of Iran alive.
Based on an actual joint operation between the American and Canadian governments that was declassified by President Clinton in 1997, Argo may seem like your everyday action caper, but is greatly enhanced by a strong script, taut direction by Affleck, and lean editing that's bolstered by a surprising level of humor that complements the dramatic tension.
It's a fascinating story-- albeit one that allegedly takes ample dramatic license with what actually happened, most notably the downplaying of the Canadian government's huge role in the operation's success-- but on its surface as a dramatic thriller, it's fabulous storytelling. Affleck gets better and better with each film he directs, with a specific focus on nailbiting tension and three-dimensional characters whose vulnerabilities balance easily with their strengths.
As Mendez, Affleck does a fine job conveying his character's disaffection with his career and the strain it's placed on his family life. Affleck takes up the bulk of the heavy acting load here, except for the wonderful Bryan Cranston (TV's "Breaking Bad") as Mendez' no-nonsense CIA superior, and the great Alan Arkin and John Goodman show up as Mendez' Hollywood contacts, serving as a welcome main source of Argo's comedy.
The film's aesthetic is late '70s cinema-grit to a "T", with dimly-lit cinematography and era-appropriate editing (and they even throw in the old-school 1970s Warner Brothers logo at the very beginning). The score by Alexandre Desplat is one of the best of the year, and the costuming and set direction are all spot-on.
The only major gripe I had with Argo was its sometimes uncomfortably one-sided depiction of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, with most if not all of the Iranian characters being portrayed as bloodthirsty and hostile. I understand the need for the film to have a "villain" present, and though it's true that a lot of Iranians were obviously a wee bit mercurial during that era, it's hard to find more than one non-Caucasian character in the film, apart from the Canadian ambassador's Iranian housekeeper, who's at least partially well-balanced in the head.
But apart from that and the previously mentioned issue regarding the overglorification of the CIA's role in the operation, Argo is an excellent example of not only a great American thriller, but also a testament to the talent of an actor-director whose comeback from the tabloid graveyard doesn't seem to be slowing down one bit.
Letter Grade: "A-"
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