Entertainment with flaws

Rating: 7/10 (5 July 2013)

As always with history, the events and specially the victories have always multiple unexplored or unaccredited facets. Argo here portrays one of the sides of the coin with Canada as the supporting side watcher.
The story is about the turmoil in Iran during 1979 when militants took control and 6 Americans from U.S Embassy manage to sneak away from the angry Iranian rebels by taking refuge in the house of the Canadian Embassy. The CIA agent Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) hatches a plan of fictional sci-fi movie (Argo) to be shot in Iran as a plausible cover up to rescue the fugitives. The fake movie is then given buffed profiles and other charades to authenticate it for the cover. Under the assumed roles of directors and co producers etc. the refugees are to be escaped out from the country.
The film has been kept simple and evenly paced. It looks authentic and scenes like the overlapping of the script reading and the telecast from the news makes for a good contrast. Ben Affleck maintains a cool, understated charismatic performance. But the rest of the premise fails to sell itself. The refugees are hollow cardboard cut outs of the characters. The deep emotions of panic and desperation that such situations evoke are missing. And just when the plot starts to look promising with at the edge of the seat car chase,the movie draws to an end. The rescue in itself though significant had been so simplified that the celebration at the end kind of looks exaggerated in the context of the movie. Overall, Argo makes for an entertaining watch but fails to touch the hardships and the fears of the hostage crisis.