Affleck will have staying power, a la Eastwood

Rating: Null/10 (12 February 2013)

ARGO, from Warner Bros. Pictures, is a well-padded film that tackles the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis (52 American hostages were held hostage inside the US embassy, during Carter's presidency, for a gruelling 444 days!) but with a fanciful twist that, in the hands of a lesser star-director, would have come up shorthanded or even mundane and trashy. But Ben Affleck has come a long way from goofy performances (1997's CHASING AMY, 1999's FORCES OF NATURE) and ever since his marvelous team-up with Matt Damon for 1997's GOOD WILL HUNTING (for which they won the screen writing Oscar), Affleck has shown he IS a force of nature to be reckoned with. Take THE TOWN (2010), a heist movie that was an uncanny character study as well, which Affleck starred in and directed (culling an Oscar-nominated performance out of costar Jeremy Renner), with 23 nominations from various bodies and academies. Even earlier, take GONE BABY GONE (2007), an abducted-child thriller, with Affleck also directing an Oscar-nominated performance out of Amy Ryan, the film replete with 12 nominations from various fronts. The 42-year-old Affleck has, as of press time, the distinction of sheperding a CIA-thriller into an astounding 63 nominations! For the 2013 Oscars alone, wit: Film Editing, William Goldenberg; Original Musical Score, Alexandre Desplat; Sound Editing, Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn; Sound Mixing, John T. Reitz; Gregg Rudloff; José Antonio Garcia; Best Motion Picture of the Year (Affleck, Clooney, Grant Heslov) Supporting Actor, Alan Arkin; Best Screenplay, Chris Terrio. If you've loved films like STATE AND MAIN (2000) and THE LAST SHOT (2004), ARGO will stun you, despite its taking "poetic" liberties (part of the actual events are glossed over, some parts in the film are fictitious, etc.) -- as it straddles the fine line between movie-making tract and CIA thriller. Affleck scores well by underplaying CIA agent Tony Mendez, who helped rescue 5 State Department agents to safety. How did Mendez do it? By pretending to be part of a filmmaking crew shooting in Tehran! Affleck disappears into the role, sporting a goatee and appearing meek yet hardworking, bedraggled and contradicted by superiors, yet his mind devising a million ways to lead both his team and the hostages to safety. Alan Arkin (Oscar-nominated), John Goodman, Bryan Cranston, Victor Garber and Kyle Chandler lend solid support, while the 6 important hostages (Tate Donovan, Clea Duvall, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham, Kerry Bishé) convey terror, anxiety and (later) collective relief grittily. Much like his earlier project THE TOWN, Affleck directs with an eye for detail, creating nerve-wracking situations and interspersing it with comic relief from the faux film crew (Goodman is especially luminous, Garber hilariously spot-on). Affleck's technical crew is splendid as well (aside from the Oscar nominees, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto telegraphs the terror of the hostages, the nastiness and utter evil of the hostage-takers, and the grace-under-duress whimsicality of the faux film crew, beautifully; Oscar-nominated Alexandre Desplat has also created evocative music to convey all those mixed emotions. I wasn't impressed much with Affleck from titles I've viewed like Armageddon, PEARL HARBOR and even REINDEER GAMES (dismissing his popularity as just a fluke, more so with the laughable DAREDEVIL), but his involvement with PAYCHECK (from my favorite sci-fi author, Philip K. Dick) and his articulate helming of THE TOWN has changed my mind about his just being "an ex of J-Lo and Gwyneth." Here is an intelligent actor-director that will have staying power for years to come. His good looks are a bonus! (",)