Argo Review

Director: Ben Affleck

Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin

Running Time: 120 Mins

Certificate: 15

Synopsis: CIA Agent Tony Mendez (Affleck) must enter revolutionary Iran in order to extract a group of fleeing US diplomatic personal.  His cover story: they are a production team for a new science fantasy film, entitled ‘Argo’.

Remember when Ben Affleck was best known as that guy from that piece of rubbish known as PEARL HARBOUR?  Nope, neither do we. So good is ARGO, his third outing in the movie making driving seat, that it wipes away any memory of Mr Affleck’s previous movie-making disasters.

Based on the true story, which centred on the 1979 Iran Hostage Situation, ARGO is superb – a confident and well-paced thriller/drama that is both fun and incredibly involving. Focusing on the CIA’s leftfield plan to rescue six US refugees by using a fake movie production as a cover story, the film rolls along leisurely at first, though is peppered with some inspired moments of action and drama, from the clever use of narration and animated storyboards to tell the political backstory in the film’s prologue, to the breath-taking opening sequence depicting the crowds of protestors storming the US Embassy, cleverly shot using grainy handheld video cameras to give the footage that ‘documentary’ feel to it.

The leisurely tone doesn’t last for long though. Once things get truly rolling, the story takes a darkly comic feel, with some great movie industry gags and one liners for both Arkin as movie producer Lester Siegel and Goodman as real-life award-winning make-up artist John Chambers, as the CIA attempt to lay the ground work for the cover story by actually putting the movie into pre-production, before taking an all together more thrilling turn as Mendez (played to perfection by a charismatic and loveable Affleck) flies into Iran in order to get the six refugees out.  Edge of your seat doesn’t even begin the describe how excellent or nerve grinding the tension is from therein, but boy, we can safely tell you that fingernails did indeed dig deep into arms of cinema seats.

Whilst there may be some big historical facts lost in the translation from reality to screen, such as the heavier involvement of the Canadian government in the rescue operation, it does little to damage what we get here  Affleck’s skill as a director shines through here. From the framing of a brief individual shot to the tiniest edit, he’s a man who knows just how to get the best from each department, and throws it onto celluloid with ease. Nothing that we see or hear can even be considered a waste. Demonstrating outstanding skill in direction and filmmaking as well as acting, Ben Affleck may well be one of the best directors working in modern Hollywood today.

A masterpiece through and through, ARGO is a film layered with great performances, confident and original directorial flourishes, and above all, a script that is incredibly interesting, highly engaging, surprisingly funny, and chock full of escalating, edge of your seat tension!  Praise be that the real-life mission was finally declassified in 1997 – to not have Ben Affleck make this movie today would be a crime.

ARGO arrives in UK cinemas 7th November.