Argo

In the opening stages of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, six American embassy workers escape and take refuge with the Canadian ambassador (Victor Garber). It is up to CIA “exfiltration” expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck, who also directed) to devise a way to sneak the Americans out before the Iranians notice they are missing from the embassy. To this end, Mendez concocts a scheme to have them pose as a Canadian film crew doing location scouting for a science fiction movie. He enlists award-winning makeup artist John Chambers (John Goodman) and veteran Hollywood producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to make the ploy convincing. The faked film production, dubbed Argo, is meticulously prepared, but will it work?

Argo represents another turning point in actor-director’s long and strange career. To 90s audiences, he was Matt Damon’s best friend, a View Askiewniverse stalwart, and the co-writer of Good Will Hunting. At the turn of the century, he was a failed lead actor, half of an annoying supercouple with Jennifer Lopez, and a perpetual punchline. But ever since his somber turn as George Reeves in 2006’s Hollywoodland, Affleck has been clawing his way back to respectability. His previous two directorial efforts, Gone Baby Gone and The Town, were well-crafted and well-regarded. Argo continues in that vein and arguably stands as Affleck’s best work, behind or in front of the camera, to date.

Of course, it helps that he had great material to work with. Argo’s based-in-reality premise comes from books by Mendez and Joshuah Bearman, which in turn stem from declassified intelligence documents. Despite the verifiable pedigree, the plot seems tailor-made for a movie. And though Affleck took some flack for downplaying Canadian contributions to the rescue mission, he otherwise hews close to history in matters both small (oversized glasses and crazy facial hair) and large (Carter’s failed diplomacy and palpable revolutionary rage in the streets of Iran).

However, it isn’t the period detail that makes Argo memorable; it’s the film’s ability to juggle moods and tones. When it is doing Hollywood satire, it is fitfully funny and generally spot-on. Added amusement comes in the form of the movie-within-a-movie’s low-budget exploitation of the Star Wars craze. On the other hand, Argo never loses sight of its origins as a political thriller. Even though the outcome is a foregone conclusion, the final mad dash to get the Americans home safely is nail-bitingly tense.

These genre shifts are made possible by a top-notch cast. Affleck is low-key but effective in the lead, playing Mendez as calm, confident, and capable, but also pressed by the nature of his work. Bryan Cranston, as his CIA boss, brings both the ruthless intensity of Walter White and the amiable attaboy-ism of Hal (his two best-known roles) to the part. The washed-up, foul-mouthed Siegel is certainly a bit caricaturized, but Arkin is genuinely funny and a good fit; watch as he out-negotiates a fellow producer with aplomb.

In an era when “political movie” has become synonymous with turgid, obvious, heavy-handed filmmaking, Argo is a breath of fresh air. It may dabble in familiarity in places, but more times than not, it defies expectations and never loses sight of its convictions.

8.5/10