Affleck the Filmmaker Soars on His Third Effort with an Evocative Historic Thriller

Rating: 9/10 (2 November 2012)

Ben Affleck the actor has never impressed me much, a journeyman who has made some real stinkers ("Gigli", "Surviving Christmas"), but Ben Affleck the filmmaker has really come into his own. His third film as a director ("Gone Baby Gone", "The Town") is a first-rate political thriller with a pulpish fervor and keen intelligence. The Iran hostage crisis of 1979-81 takes on revitalized life in this engrossing 2012 movie with great period detail and a well-turned screenplay by first- timer Chris Terrio. The recent Benghazi killings only makes this story resonate more with an event hidden from history prior to 1997 propulsively dramatized here as a turning point in the precarious state of U.S. relations with the entire Arab world. It's fascinating to consider the truth behind the "best bad idea" the CIA could concoct to rescue six U.S. embassy workers who managed to escape the compound. There's a blessedly brief prologue chronicling the events that led to the Shah's exile to the U.S. and the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini and fundamentalist Islam in Iran leading to the tense hostage situation.
The six workers found refuge at the Canadian embassy. With the CIA at a loss to figure out how to sneak them out of Iran, exfiltration specialist Tony Mendez is inspired a bit of "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" to come up with an incredulous plot to have the six pose as a Canadian film crew who were flown to Teheran to scout locations for a phony sci-fi film that gives this movie its name. Mendez enlists prosthetics expert, real-life makeup artist John Chambers, to help convince veteran producer Lester Siegel to get studio backing for the fake epic. Siegel insists the picture look credible, so he buys an existing script, holds a reading with real actors at the Beverly Hilton, and starts an advertising campaign in the trade papers. All the gears are set in motion as Mendez's boss Jack O'Donnell miraculously gains approval for the far-fetched plan. Mendez flies to Teheran with doctored passports in hand and tries to convince the six to act out their roles with precise detail before they get recognized by Iranian officials as escapees from the embassy.
This race against the clock provides the tension in the film's final act, which comes down to a rather implausible albeit extremely thrilling chase scene at the airport. With Affleck in mostly stoic mode as Mendez, the cast is solidly effective with three unsurprising standouts – John Goodman as the avuncular Chambers, Bryan Cranston as the acerbic O'Donnell, and Alan Arkin who steals all his scenes with ease as Siegel. All the period detail is excellent from the tacky clothes to the Turkish locations standing in for Iran. The slightly washed-out documentary- style of Rodrigo Prieto's ("Brokeback Mountain") cinematography perfectly captures the crowded, often squalid atmosphere. There's also an evocative use of vintage TV news clips featuring Mike Wallace's infamous interview with Khomeini. The final explanation of how the real story of the mission unfolded is provided in a voice-over by Jimmy Carter, who was President when it all took place up until the rest of the hostages were released. The film is a genre picture at heart but a historically evocative and emotionally powerful one thanks to Affleck's impressive work behind the camera.