Ben and his beard to the rescue

Rating: 7/10 (26 November 2014)

'Argo' is one of those films 'based on real events,' which basically means that Hollywood has beefed up various aspects to put bums on seats.
It's set at the end of the seventies when six Americans are left stranded in Iran, leaving Ben Affleck and his beard to hatch an ingenious plan to make them pose as science-fiction film makers and fly them out of there.
If you want to know how it ended, Google the true story. What you have here is Hollywood's interpretation of it. And, looking at it from an entertainment point of view, it does do the job. It's pretty intense in places, which, if you're after an edgy thriller, should leave you satisfied.
However, if you're looking for something a little more true to life, then you may find it hard to get over some of the major Hollywood views. As usual, the Americans are ultra-heroic, whereas the Iranians are presented as bungling incompetents who are too busy burning US flags to be any more terrifying that your average Scooby Doo villain. Of course there are the little alterations, too. In real life, the escaping Americans were temporarily sheltered by the British. In the film they take great care to point out how the British turned them away - grumble, grumble, grumble.
Bottom line: if you look at it as entertainment with some terrible seventies haircuts and a fantastic beard co-starring on Ben Affleck's face (which definitely should have won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, in my opinion) then it works. Historically - well, let's just say it will pick up more than its fair share of criticism for its version of 'the truth.'