Ben Affleck has little left to prove. He has again brought us another first rate thriller. That being said I don’t believe it was quite as good as the hype. It was a well made film for sure but nothing terribly special—maybe people are so used to mediocre Hollywood films that when a good film comes along it goodness gets blown out of proportion. Duh, you might utter, but this concept always seems to surprise some.
Argo chronicles a brief tumultuous period in Iran—very surprising I know. A coup has currently caused the American embassy to be a hot spot for nationalist rebels. A few American employees escape the embassy and hide out with a Canadian Ambassador. This will not be safe for long. So the Americans back home at the CIA find a guy who gets people out of tight spots. His idea is to come up with a fake film, script and all, to present to the foreign government so that he can pretend that the clandestine Americans are filmmakers and subsequently get them out of the country because they were only there on a location scout to begin with. If this weren’t a declassified true story it probably would be too weird of a concept for the regular Joe to buy. Myself included.
However, the film succeeds on many levels. The story takes you in rather quickly and of course your always rooting for the good guys in this riveting scenario. The last quarter of the film really shines as Affleck gets you on the edge of your seat without really seeming to try—as all good directors can. If you’ve seen the preview nothing much will surprise you in how the film plays out, which is to it’s advantage, yet, somewhat geared towards my view that it may not really exceed your expectations—it’s just simply a very good thriller.
Recommended Viewing: The Town - Syriana - The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Bob Scale: The Critic: 8.0 - The Fan: 8.0
MetaCritic: 72
Rotten Tomatoes: 94
IMDB: 8.0
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