Ben Affleck is a director, not an actor!

Rating: 8/10 (16 January 2013)

When I first watched "Argo" I have do admit I had my doubts. Mainly because I have an ambiguous relationship with Ben Affleck, I was very nervous in terms of what to expect from him. As an actor he has always confused me, mainly because he's managed to cement himself as one of the top A-listers despite some horrible performances and choice of roles. Daredevil, Reindeer Games, Bounce, Jersey Girl were all titles that made us doubt the handsome brown- eyed actor. It seemed that he played the same role over and over again. For whatever reason we tolerated it for a while. Probably because we still remembered the glory days of Good Will Hunting and Armageddon. I remember seeing a spoof on Family Guy with Ben Affleck sitting on a dirty couch drinking beer. He suddenly exclaims "Whoah! I gotta be Henry the 8th in twenty minutes!" He practices saying "Hello" with a terrible English accent, snaps his fingers, says, "Got it", and leaves through the door. This 8-second clip pretty much summed up how I felt about him for many years and in 2003 he finally dropped the ball completely with Gigli, a movie often credited as one of the worst ever made. I for one, lost all respect.
We forget about him until 2007 where his little brother steps into the light with a strong performance in Gone Baby Gone directed by Ben himself. A well crafted fast-paced thriller that showed a new side of the forgotten star. 3 years later, it's clear. Ben Affleck is back with yet another brilliant movie. The Town. We realize that this man is a director, not an actor. His way of telling his stories is absolutely unparalleled and he manages to pull the viewer into the plot with wonderful character developments. The Town garnered Jeremy Renner an Oscar-nomination, and this is as much a compliment to Affleck as it is to Renner, since the viewers' involvement with the character and empathy is one of Affleck's main traits as a director.
Argo is no exception to Ben Affleck's brilliance as a director. It is so very easy to make a fast paced action movie with gunfights and car chases, and so extremely hard to make one with the finesse and fine-tuned timing that makes you sit on the edge of your seat. It simply goes to show you don't need all the violence, and fast paced hardcore action that currently dominates Hollywood. It is a revolutionary and brave attempt at bringing the thriller genre into a new era.
The movie sets off at the escalation of the Iranian hostage crisis. With no prior knowledge to this event, the viewer has no doubts about what is happening, and the conflict is as clear as daylight. 6 American diplomats working on the American embassy in Iran flees when Iranian rebels attack the Embassy. They seek refuge at the Canadian Ambassador's estate, who has to keep it a secret in order to maintain his peaceful and diplomatic relationship with the Iranians. When the CIA learns of the attack they hire their very best "extractor", Tony Mendez to extract the six refugees out of Iran. He comes up with an ingenious plan to make a "fake" movie, and use it as a cover to extract the Americans. He teams up with two Hollywood experts, director Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) and special effects man John Chambers (John Goodman) to fake the movie and travels to Iran to extract the refugees.
The tone of the movie is set from scene 1, and the tension is build up exponentially from here. The before mentioned finesse shines through so brightly, since you never know what will happen next. It's an extremely exciting and intense storyline, and Affleck manages to keep you interested without your typical big, visually spectacular action sequences. Alan Arkin and John Goodman manages to breathe some fresh, lighthearted and witty life into the otherwise serious movie. Through their amusing dialogues, they give the movie a charming twist and elevate it to a whole new level. Goodman and Arkin seem to be very comfortable in their roles and Arkins' Oscar nomination is indeed deserved.
Ben Affleck's choices of actors for the roles always amuse me. In The Town he chose actors like Blake Lively, John Hamm and Titus Welliver who are all strong and well-known actors, but mainly in TV-series. The same goes for Argo. Bryan Cranston, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall and Rory Cochrane dominate most of the main cast. Whether or not this is intentional, it is worth mentioning since it says a lot about Affleck as a director that he doesn't necessarily choose the most famous actors, but the ones that are best suited for the role.
It pains me to have to write this last section of my review, but someone has to do it. Ben Affleck's role is not particularly good. It's not particularly bad either, but he just seems incredibly unnecessary in the sense that his performance is a bit spineless. I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this one, but his character just didn't speak to me at all. I read that Affleck originally wanted Brad Pitt to play Tony Mendez, but he had to back out of the project because of scheduling problems. Maybe that's why he decided to take over the role himself, and maybe that's why it seemed a little "rushed".
In conclusion Argo is literally the point where art meets action, and the result is a redefining piece of film history, that has cemented Affleck as one of the top directors of our time.