3 ½ stars (out of four)
Argo tells an
unbelievable story, a prime cut of Hollywood entertainment complete with a
daring rescue, down-to-the-wire phone calls and by-the-skin-of-their-teeth
chases. That this story is also a true one dampens none of the thrills director
Ben Affleck and screenwriter Chris Terrio cull from declassified files of
a CIA mission from 1980.
The mission, which occurred during the early months of the
Iran hostage crisis that began in 1979 and lasted until 1981, was to save six
civilian lives who narrowly escaped the U.S. embassy before it was flooded and
overrun by protestors. When it comes to the attention of the CIA that these six
men and women have fled to sanctuary in the Canadian ambassador to Iran’s home,
the government plots a rescue mission.
Enter CIA officer Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck). He has the look
of a guy who has spent countless hours in smoke-filled backrooms of the
government agency – both intensely focused and somewhat dazed. He is brought in
to advise the CIA on the mission and quickly concludes that none of the
proposed plans are even remotely achievable. The only way out of Tehran, he
says, is the airport, which means they will need a plausible cover story and
fake identities.
Here’s an idea: What if they pretend to be members of a
Canadian film crew scouting locations for a science-fiction film to be shot in
Iran? It’s a crazy idea but is it just crazy enough to work or simply crazy?
The CIA, seeing no better alternative, gives Mendez’s plan the go-ahead.
An operation like this will need lots of help, which is also
to say the movie offers a number of opportunities for choice supporting roles.
Ben Affleck, making good use of his friendships with fellow actors, has
assembled a strong ensemble cast filled with fantastic character actors. John
Goodman as the genial John Chambers, an Oscar-winning makeup artist and
Mendez’s Hollywood connect, and Alan Arkin as Lester Siegel, a crotchety
veteran producer, make a lively pair. They spend most of their screen time together,
trading quips and banter, and Mr. Arkin in particular gets most of the film’s
funniest lines. An intense Bryan Cranston plays Jack O’Donnell, Mendez’s direct
superior, and Mr. Cranston’s commanding presence drives many of the more tense
scenes late in the film.
Mr. Affleck gives a strong performance too but more
impressive is the sure command he maintains as a director. The film toggles
between scenes of the six Americans hiding out, jittering nervously about their
fates, and scenes of Mendez preparing for the mission. We get a real sense for
the politics at work not only in the CIA but in Hollywood as well. Mendez must
contend with the difficulties of planning a dangerous undercover operation in
addition to navigating the bureaucracy required in order to get a film – even a
fake one – into production.
Argo acknowledges the
absurdity of this process while also addressing the grave reality of the larger
geopolitical conflicts that defined this period of American history. And it
illustrates the strangeness of all this with startling clarity. One superb
scene shows Mendez arriving in Tehran, riding through its streets in the back
of a taxicab. He glances out the window and sees an Iranian woman eating
outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken followed by – no less than a few blocks down –
a man hanged for treason from a construction crane.
It is a strange world we live in and Argo streamlines its strangeness and complexity into an
engrossing two hours of commercial entertainment.
- Steve Avigliano, 10/18/12
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