Film Review: Argo

Argo. Rated M (coarse language, mature themes and violence). 120 minutes. Directed by Ben Affleck. Screenplay by Chris Terrio.

Verdict: Ben Affleck delivers an outstanding edge-of-your seat ride.

When Iranian revolutionaries stormed the Embassy of the United States of America in the Iranian capital Tehran in November 1979, the world watched the hostage drama unfold over 444 days before the 52 American hostages were finally released. What was unknown at the time, was that as the embassy was being stormed, six Americans escaped and sought safety in other places – notably in the home of the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber).

This, now declassified, true story about how the CIA’s disguise and exfiltration expert, Tony Mendez (Affleck) selflessly attempted to bring the six Americans home is an absolute triumph for actor/director Ben Affleck (The Town, Gone Baby Gone). The premise – that Mendez and the six Americans are crew members of a science-fiction film scouting for locations in Tehran – is so completely outside the square, that it ends up being ridiculously believable.

Buoyed by two fine performances from John Goodman (as make-up artist John Chambers, who created the prosthetics for the renowned Planet of the Apes series of films in the 60s) and Alan Arkin (as Hollywood producer Lester Siegel), the outlandish idea of setting up a fake Hollywood film project provides Argo with a generous amount of unexpected humour that helps balance the main game – a life-and-death flight from possible execution at the hands of the revolutionaries – beautifully.

Frequent Affleck collaborator, Sharon Seymour’s (The Town, Gone Baby Gone) production design captures the era perfectly, while Rodrigo Prieto’s (Water for Elephants, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Brokeback Mountain) cinematography and William Goldenberg’s (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Gone Baby Gone) editing anchor the film superbly in the style of photo-journalism –ensuring that the overall result is urgent and deeply unsettling for almost all of its two hour running time.

Immersed in an outstanding ensemble of committed and believable performances, Affleck shines both in front of, and behind, the camera and delivers a terrifically taut political thriller about self-belief in the face of life-threatening and increasingly unpredictable hostility.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.