Argo is a tense drama that unless it was true would not work

Rating: 7/10 (21 October 2012)

"Ben Affleck continues his directing by making his best and most tense drama for the first time set out of Boston making it more international"
Back in 2007 when Ben Affleck directed his first film I never would have thought that over five years he would have developed his skills to form a tense and personal drama about international conflicts. The story is set in 1979 when the American Ebassy in Iran was stormed by the locals and before they could be caught six Americans escaped through the back door to then take refuge in the Canadian ambassador's house. 69 days later Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) is called to help come up with some ideas to get these six people home. Tony calls in some Hollywood help in Oscar winner makeup artist John Chambers (John Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to produce a science fiction movie called Argo using the six Americans as Canadian members of the crew.
The fact this story is true and that the world only found out about it when Bill Clinton released the story in 1997. The writer of the film Chris Terrio was asked to adapt it for the big screen and Ben took the job of directing it. This film is Ben's most technically perfect between the cast and the other smaller parts of the film he has made a film about the greatness that America can do when they put there mind to it. My favourite scenes in the film where based in the house with the six Americans as we see them start to loose it after spending so much time together and not being allowed to leave.
The cast is so strong it is hard to say which one of them is the best. Ben Affleck picked himself to play the character of Tony and his performance suffered for me because he was surrounded by much more interesting characters, he was fine but he really was there to set up the whole operation. Alan Arkin and John Goodman are the comedic relief of this drama as they play the Hollywood people who are trusted with the information to save these people, out of the two I thought Arkin was better but as with Goodman who is also great they disappear for a lot of the time as the story changes from Hollywood to the backdrop of Iran. Bryan Cranston plays Jack O'Donnell the man who brings Tony in on the plan, he is not given much to do until the end when his character becomes essential to finishing the plan. As I have said the cast is big with so many character actors including Tate Donovan, Chris Messina, Scott McNairy and Kyle Chandler all given little time but still being great.
The film was very strong and the editing was sharp. The music by Alexandre Desplat is just as strong as his other million films he does every year and it adds to the tension and time period the film is set in. The fact Ben has turned his career around with his directing achievements has made me have more confidence in him. If they had cast a different lead I'm sure this film would have worked better because it relies on the performance Affleck is supposed to give but he gets over shined by the supporting cast.
MOVIE GRADE: A- (MVP: Alan Arkin)