Argo, directed and starring Ben Affleck (The Town), is centred around the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and the efforts of one CIA agent, Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck). When the embassy in Iran gets raided, and seized by Islamic militants, six American diplomats managed to escape and find secret sanctuary with the Canadian ambassador. Months later, Mendez devises an audacious plan to get the six diplomats back to America, posing as a film crew looking for locations to shoot, along with the help of John Goodman (The Big Lebowski, Flight) and Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine).
I feel as a whole Argo is the weakest Best Picture winner in many, many years. Although a technically very sound film, it suggests that the film business can solve the world's problems, including terrorism. For this reason I can see why those in Hollywood love this picture.
The film is well directed, I am under the opinion that Ben Affleck can direct anything that he is given, yet, for me, Affleck is better suited to Boston thrillers, he should stick to what he knows. Furthermore, it's interesting that his portrayal of Tony Mendez is one that focuses on his trusting nature and smarts in terms of his mission, yet it fails to question Mendez' separation from his wife. It seems to me that that sub-story is just included so that it will form a nice ending when his wife takes him back.
One thing that surprised me about Argo is that the story expands in an oddly uncomplicated and non-shocking way. This creates a much more believable environment. If this film was a fiction, and not 'based on truth', there would be many more plot twists, or tense encounters that would dramatise and, in a sense, take the film too far into the realms of a Hollywood, fiction, action/thriller.
An extremely enjoyable film, although not Affleck's best.
J.Henderson.
6.5/10.
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