Dir: Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John
Goodman, Alan Arkin
Plot: The joint-venture secret operation
of the CIA, Hollywood and Canada to extract six diplomatic employees of have
managed to remain hidden after the taking of the US embassy in a revolutionary
Iran in 1979.
“The truth and nothing
but the truth”: Going beyond the praise and the
obvious statement that Ben Affleck is a better director than he is actor (to be
fair let me use a past tense on the “actor” part), we have a movie that
delivers what has been lacking in the big screen for some years now: a
top-notch spy thriller with a lot of action involved (with the latter part
being absent from “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (2011) ). Maybe the movie had an
amplified effect on me, being a die-hard fan of the post-Watergate era movies
of the 1970’s; but the box-office numbers show that perhaps I’m not the only
one.
Affleck was able to turn the uneven pace found
on his last entry “The Town” (2010), from a weakness into a strength in “Argo”,
going from a fast paced first act, to a slower second act to finally top if off with a third act climax
that will forever haunt my memory.
But the true essence of the movie’s success lies
in the supporting cast. Affleck himself delivers a good performance, but hardly
one that will get him on of the five slots at the Academy Awards. Alan Arkin,
John Goodman and Bryan Cranston to name a few are the true reason why the movie
works so well, with a special praise to both Arkin and Goodman who are able to
turn a set of clichéd Hollywood stereotypes and jokes into a somewhat refreshing
portrayal of what goes on at Tinseltown. (The fact that there’s a montage
including Van Halen’s “Dance the Night Away” was an added bonus to me).
What makes this story so compelling is that old
expression “truth is stranger than fiction”: Both the CIA and the extractor and
the brain behind the whole idea, Tony Mendez (Affleck) develop a preposterous
plan to shoot a Star Wars-like production (and God only knows how many rip-off
were produced during the late 70’s and early 80’s) in Iran. This would allowed
to extract the six Americans, by making them pass as a Canadian film crew on
location scouting. The whole tension and “stranger in a strange land” feeling among
the six members of the diplomatic personnel who have successfully avoided being
captured by the Iran forces is almost reminiscent of a mix between the Anne
Frank story and “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1978).
So, in a nutshell “Argo” is a successful
combination of comedy bits with a tense portrayal of the years in which
American pride wasn’t being displayed as it used to in the past and you can see
it. It’s a criticism to both sides of a war, with both the excesses of the political
reign of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the impotence of Jimmy Carter analyzed
under the microscope with a dash of drama that only adds interest to a real
event.
It’s pretty much a serious version of “Charlie
Wilson’s War” (2007), a brilliant piece of revivalism and to me simply one of
the best, if not the best movie, I’ve seen the whole year.
“Money-Shot”: The whole final sequence at the
airport. Hands-down, the best sequence of the year and one of the best I’ve
ever seen ranking up there with the execution of the heads of the other four
families in “The Godfather” (1972), for example.
Bottom-Line: 10/10. A political/spy/comedy/thriller action paced movie
that is easily one of the best, if not the best, movies of the year. A must-see
for those who have enjoyed “Charlie Wilson’s War” (2007) and those who enjoy
political thrillers altogether.
But of course, this is just my opinion, I could
be wrong…
