Although he has been around awhile, Ben Affleck made his mark co-writing “Good Will Hunting” in 1997, winning an Oscar for that original screenplay. Since then he has starred in 32 feature films, written 2 others, and directed 3 more, as well as producing a number of television shows and 5 feature films, not to mention being involved in highly publicized off-screen romances. So it is ironic that a man in the public eye as much as Ben Affleck would direct, produce, and star in a film about an event (and a person) that would be as highly secretive as “Argo.”
Based on “Escape from Tehran”, an article written by Joshuah Bearman (2007) based on recently declassified documents, “Argo” tells part of the timely story the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1980. Following the Iranian revolution that saw the overthrow of the Shah, the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was attacked and some 60 American hostages were taken. What the revolutionaries did not know was that six potential hostages had slipped out and sought asylum at the home of the Canadian ambassador who compassionately. Fearing they would be executed as spies if found, CIA operator Tony Mendez concocts a bizarre plan to smuggle the six out of the country: he will pose as a Canadian filmmaker scouting locations for his science fiction movie entitled “Argo” and the six fugitives would pretend to be his film crew.
Ben Affleck (“Dogma”) plays Tony Mendez, coolly calculating his chances and displaying nerve and understated bravado in order to pull it off. A subplot involving him and his estranged wife and son adds needed depth to the character, but is the only character development allowed for in the screenplay. The best lines in the script are delivered by Bryan Cranston (TV’s “Breaking Bad”) portraying his CIA boss Jack O’Donnell, Alan Arkin (“Get Smart”) as Hollywood producer Lester Siegel and John Goodman (“The Big Lebowski”) as movie make-up artist John Chambers trying to organize the cockamamie plot. Victor Garber (“Legally Blonde”) is the Canadian ambassador and he and the six runaways initially do an excellent job of portraying the fear, uncertainty, and anxiety of people under siege by a government run amok with blood lust and hatred; sadly, this element of the plot is soon discarded in favor of many close ups of Director/Star Ben Affleck looking blankly pensive.
“Argo” could have been a terrific movie: the premise is proof that truth is stranger than fiction; the sets and locations, and the cinematography capture the claustrophobic fear that surrounded everyone at the time; and the cast does a good job with the limited material they are given to work with. But the development of characters, what would have made the audience truly care about the cast is minimized.
Instead, long transition shots of Ben Affleck are inserted, and (with George Clooney as executive producer), the script cannot help but make political statement s. This last element is one of the most irritating things about “Argo,” as the movie opens with a long, distorted perspective of the history leading up to the hostage crisis, one that portrays America as the villain until Jimmy Carter becomes President. And while President Carter himself is not shown in the film, he narrates a laudatory postscript that inserts him into the story unnecessarily. Also injected into the story gratuitously are Carter administration officials Hamilton Jordan (played by Kyle Chandler, “Super 8”) and Cyrus Vance (Bob Gunton, “The Lincoln Lawyer”). Other elements that would be relevant to the story are omitted (such as the disastrous rescue attempt).
All in all, “Argo” is a decent film that should have paid more attention to its characters than in idolizing Ben Affleck and making political statements.