A solid film, not a masterpiece

Rating: 7/10 (12 October 2012)

The film falters most when it forces itself into comic and thriller molds. I was worried that the film would play up the "isn't this SUCH a wacky, harebrained idea" angle, and in the first act, especially the Hollywood scenes, it kind of does. And the third act is guilty of too much overt button-pushing; without giving anything away, a lot of it feels pretty artificial, which would be less of an issue if this weren't ostensibly a true story.
Another fault I found was how thinly drawn the hostages actually were. I never really felt like they were particularly rounded as individuals, and the one with the most dialogue (Joe Stafford, I'm pretty sure) did little more than fret and grouse. By not developing the hostages as characters, the film undercuts, in my view, its own stakes and whatever level of emotional involvement the audience may have had.
With all that, I still thought it was a well-made film; Affleck's direction isn't outstanding, but the film moves smoothly, the suspense is decently well-managed (the script may be more to blame than anything else), it's technically solid (some iffy CGI aside), and the acting is just fine. Affleck is muted, but that's acceptable for the role of Mendez; Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman all do quite well, and I personally wish they had more to do. The rest of the cast do just fine, but they aren't given quite enough to work with.
And that's what I think might ultimately hurt the film's Oscar chances; there's no performance in the film to really latch onto. Arkin is being pegged as a contender, but he really doesn't have THAT much to do; the acting is perfectly fine, but really, I find ARGO to be a solid thriller and not much more.
Perhaps what the film should've done is focused less on the suspense and more on the psychology of role-playing. Playing these parts was a matter of life and death for these people; that was a theme the film should dug into deeper.
And maybe that's why I didn't love ARGO; it doesn't have much real depth to it. It's enjoyable, it's well-made, butthere's not too much at the core.