This is a must see movie, honestly. It's well worth the price of admission. It's tense, well acted, and it makes me think how in the world they got it done! Go see it NOW!
Ben Affleck has turned into one of my favorite directors. He's right up there with Spielberg, Fincher, Scorsese, and Lee as far as I'm concerned. I thoroughly enjoyed his first to forays into directing, Gone Baby Gone impressed me and The Town was brilliant. I held off on adding him to my favorite directors list though because those two movies were both based in Boston and were well within his comfort zone. I wanted to see him tackle a project that had nothing to do with Bean town and it's people before I made him an official member. Argo firmly plants him prominently on that list.
Argo is the very real story of a plot to rescue six U.S. Embassy workers who escaped the embassy out the back when the Iranians barged through the front. The protesters wanted the U.S. to return the Shah of Iran back to them so they could try him in court and then kill him. The Shah , offered asylum by President Jimmy Carter had come to America dying of cancer but the people he left behind wanted him dead and they figured the best way to make that happen was to storm the U.S embassy and take Americans hostage. Somehow six escaped in the melee and swiftly headed to the Canadian Ambassadors house. How they knew to go there is never explained in the movie (big unexplained hole in the story but whatever) but you're happy he allowed them in.
Ben Affleck plays Tony Mendez, one of the CIA's top guys known for going into hostile territory and getting people out safely. Bryan Cranston plays his boss Jack O'Donnell. Jack calls Tony in 60+ days into for his opinion on how to get the six escaped Americans out of the house of the ambassador and out of the country without being publicly executed. Over a phone call with his son he comes up with a way to get the six out of Iran and it's an ingenious idea. Now Ben Affleck as a director is impressive, as an actor, not so much. He's droll and has the emotional range of a tree. Wait, that's not fair to the trees of the world. How about, he has all the emotional range of wet cement? That's more apropos. I think he should just stick to directing from now on and leave the acting to those that know how to do it. Outside of the big gaping hole in the story and Ben's horrible acting though this movie is flawless.
This movie must have been a nightmare for the production designer because the sets and the cars were right out of the early eighties. From the Star Wars poster and action figures in Tony's sons room to the cars, the clothes, even the phones, they got everything right. The budget for those things alone must have been considerable. Ben also used a nice mixture of dolly shots along with hand held cameras whenever he wanted to ramp up the tension, the music helped with that as well. Scored perfectly by the talented Alexandre Desplat the music wasn't overpowering but nor was it forgetful. It played it's position perfectly, either adding to the tension or defusing it and letting you know it was alright to breathe again. I highly recommend Argo and I'll see you at the theater.
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