Film Review -- Argo

This Ben Affleck-directed thriller, based on a true story, stars Affleck, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Bryan Cranston, and Victor Garber. In Iran on November 4, 1979, a group of revolutionaries invades the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in protest of the U.S. providing exile to the dying, recently deposed Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whom the revolutionaries wanted back in Iran to be tried and executed. They successfully take hostage fifty-two Americans, but six employees working at the adjacent consulate -- Robert Anders (Tate Donovan), Mark Lijek (Christopher Denham), Cora Lijek (Clea DuVall), Henry L. Schatz (Rory Cochrane), Joe Stafford (Scoot McNairy), and Kathy Stafford (Kerry Bishé) -- escape before the takeover and are taken in by the Canadian Ambassador to Iran, Ken Taylor (Garber). Sixty-nine days pass, and exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Affleck) is contacted by his supervisor in the CIA, Jack O'Donnell (Cranston) about smuggling the escapees out of Iran before the revolutionaries discover that six people are missing from the embassy. Calling it the "best bad idea" that they come up with, Mendez and O'Donnell decide to have the six pose as a film crew for the fictional sci-fi film Argo, looking at filming locations in Iran and getting them out with fake Canadian passports. They contact Oscar-winning makeup artist John Chambers (Goodman), and mega-producer Lester Siegel (Arkin) to take part in the charade so that the cover-up seems legitimate. They agree, and soon the four are racing against the clock to save six lives during one of the U.S.'s worst diplomatic crises. What struck me the most about the film is that it is an entirely true story, yet it seems so unbelievable that something like this could happen, and not that long ago. I also commend Affleck and screenwriter Chris Terrio for taking a story where the outcome is widely known, or easy to find out, and still manage to make an extremely tense film; I was practically shaking in my seat. The acting is superb, and the pacing is great; there are even some humorous moments to break the tension. It is rated R for language only, and I appreciated the film's minimal violence and graphic images, for it kept the focus solely on the mission, and the psychological state of the characters. Argo is easily the best film of 2012 so far, and it will be a tall task for any film to surpass it. The Best Picture Oscar is Argo's to lose. 

Should you see it: Yes
Grade: A