Argo Makes Ben Affleck This Generation's Best Director

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2013)

Argo is a thriller film that chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis-the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades. As the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, a CIA "exfiltration" specialist named Tony Mendez, portrayed by Ben Affleck, comes up with a risky plan to get them safely out of the country. The film stars also Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman in supporting roles.
Militants storm the United States embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, in retaliation for CIA involvements in Iran. More than 50 of the embassy staff are taken as hostages, but six escape and hide in the home of the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor. With the escapees' situation kept secret, the US State Department begins to explore options for ex-filtrating them from Iran.Mendez was brought in for consultation, criticizes the proposals, but is at a loss for an alternative. While on the phone with his son, he is inspired by watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes and begins plans for creating a cover story for the escapees being Canadian filmmakers scouting for exotic locations in Iran for a similar science-fiction film.
Mendez and his supervisor Jack O'Donnell contact John Chambers, a Hollywood make-up artist who has previously crafted disguises for the CIA. Chambers puts them in touch with film producer Lester Siegel. Together they set up a phony film studio, publicize their plans, and successfully establish the pretense of developing Argo, a "science fantasy" in the style of Star Wars, to lend credibility to the cover story. Posing as a producer for Argo, Mendez enters Iran and links up with the six escapees. He provides them with Canadian passports and fake identities to prepare them to get through security at the airport. Although afraid to trust Mendez's scheme, they reluctantly go along with it, knowing that he is risking his own life too. A scouting visit to the bazaar to maintain their cover story takes a bad turn, but their Iranian culture contact gets them away from the hostile crowd.Mendez is told that the operation has been canceled to avoid conflicting with a planned military rescue of the hostages. He pushes ahead, forcing O'Donnell to hastily re-obtain authorization for the mission to get tickets on a Swissair flight. Tension rises at the airport, where the escapees' flight reservations are confirmed at the last minute, and a guard's call to the supposed studio in Hollywood is answered at the last second. The group boards the plane just as the Revolutionary Guards at the airport uncover the ruse and try to stop their plane from getting off the runway, but they are too late, as Mendez and the six successfully leave Iran.
Argo has that solid, kick-the-tires feel of those studio films from the 70s that were about something but also entertained. Only it's as laugh outright amusing, as it is sobering. The top-notch packaging reveals for what it really is: less a nail-biting chamber-piece character drama and more a coolly realized, wildly reckless, action film. As for Ben Affleck effort as a director, it is easily the most cohesive and technically accomplished of his three films so far after The Town and Gone Baby Gone. His Oscar snub undeserved for this truly presents him as generation's best director. As for the acting, Goodwin and Arkin are simply amazing that makes the story wildly entertaining thriller that proves of the old Hollywood adage that fiction is stranger than truth after all. As for Affleck, he gives an average portrayal of Mendez - a kind of anti-Bourne, comfortable with his anonymity, living off his wits, not his fists. It is definitely one of the best movies of the year – a close second to Zero Dark Thirty.