This movie could give a guy a heart attack. If one is to watch this film, he will sit down, and after an opening credits sequence, he will be on the edge of his seat hoping that these six people do not die.
WHAT IS ARGO (in terms of information one can glean from the trailer) ? Argo is about the Iranian Hostage Crisis that took place from 1980-1981. Basically, there is a lot of tension between the United States and Iraq. This tension is caused by the U.S. giving asylum to the cancer ridden Shah (who was incredibly cruel to his people). Iranians do not like this and attack the U.S. embassy. Six members of the embassy escape and are in hiding. 65 (or so) days later, Tony Mendez (Affleck) is called in to figure out how to save these people. He comes up with the idea to create a fake film production and disguise the six as film crew scouting for a location. The title of this fake science fiction film is Argo.
Argo is undoubtedly successful in creating suspense. It also recreates 1980 very effectively. These two major successes take the film a long way. It also features strong performances and a strong sense of wit, particularly when the film is focused on the fake production of Argo. Needless to say, John Goodman is hilarious and the jokes made at the expense of Hollywood work.
What is particularly interesting and gripping about this movie is the impact of science fiction upon reality. The inspiration for the idea to make the fake film, a tense sequence in an airport, and the final moments of the film really hit on these ideas. Not a lot is done with it, but it adds flavor to an otherwise tense story.
As far as shortcomings go, none of the characters, aside from John Goodman and Alan Arkin's characters, are really memorable. The vast majority of the characters seem to be broad sketches that exist for the purpose of the story.
That said, this is another strong directorial effort from Ben Affleck. More impressive, however, is that it is Chris Terrio's first full length credited screenplay. It's a very solid and memorable film, but I cannot foresee it winning any of the academy awards it has been nominated for.
My admittedly arbitrary ranking system gives this 4/5
Thank you for reading,
Scott Charles
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