ARGO Review
By Darin Skaggs
“Ben Affleck is in a good film”. There was a time in our lives where this phrase was only said in a sarcastic tone and in a joking fashion. In the last few years he has directed three of his own films. With this he has changed this phrase from a joke to the truth. First with his 2007 film Gone Baby Gone, which I have not seen but have heard nothing but good things about. Then his 2010 film The Town, which I did see and is a very well made film. Now with his new film Argo he has added another great addition to his discovery.
Argo is a film based on true events that happened in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s where hundreds of American’s are taken hostage while in Iran. This film is about the mission to save six Americans that escaped being captured and are hiding out. Tony Mendez, played by Affleck, comes up with a plan to get them out by going into Iran. There he will pretend to make a movie and have the six be part of the film crew. After some arguing and convincing Mendez sets up his mission to go and save the stranded Americans. All the aspects to the situation are handled, like convincing a producer to give the green light to the film and the picking out of the screenplay, which is where the title of the film comes in play.
The film is based on a true story, yet Affleck cast many well-known actors in the film. At first it was almost a distraction seeing people like Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights or Brian Cranston of Breaking Bad fame, others including John Goodman and Alan Arkin. Though at first it was distracting every performance is very good, some even great, that by before the middle of the movie I was invested in the characters and the story they were living. All the stranded Americans are played by good actors but I have to give most of my praise to the makeup team who transformed the actors to look nearly identical to the real life people. Affleck has a great performance as the guy who risks his life to save these people. The film focuses on his character the most and he gives himself the most backstory saying he has a broken marriage and has trouble connecting with his kid. There could have been less of this aspect or there could have been more back story to the other characters who are in danger.
Like I said before this film is based on true events yet the direction from Affleck make the events in the movie very tense and suspenseful. Anyone either already knows what happens or can look it up on the internet, but during the finale of this film I was on the edge of my seat hoping that the plan works and the team will make it back safely. Some parts in the film add to the suspense but are very unlikely to have happened in real life. Such as, a few characters have to answer a phone call to protect the Americans from being caught and they answer it just in time. There are several “just in the nick of time” moments that occur in the film that lessens the tense sequences because they become less believable. This is a problem that stops the film from being truly amazing and just lets it be a great film. Another highlight of the film is that though it is a tense subject, it does not stop Affleck from putting humor into the film, mostly coming from Arkin and Goodman.
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