Argo Review

Period films about historical events often come in two ways: really inaccurate and badly done or close enough with solid writing and actings. Ben Affleck’s OSCAR winning movie “Argo” falls into the latter category.

“Argo” tells the semi-accurate story of how a group of Canadians help get a bunch of American diplomatic personnel out of Iran in 1980. We follow the story from the perspective of Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) a CIA agent who is an expert at extracting people from dangerous situations. He is called in when the US government has run out of ideas on how to get their citizens out of Iran from the Canadian embassy. He enlists a couple of Hollywood producers to create a fake movie and by shooting in Iran sneak the US citizens out as consultants on the movie. Mendez then flies to Iran and we watch as he works with the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber) to complete his plan.

“Argo” is one of those films that isn’t amazing but has many great elements. It has a well written script by Chris Terrio which has some good character development and dialogue. It has a strong cast featuring Affleck, John Goodman, Victor Garber and Bryan Cranston. Yet with all this talent, this movie is only average. It moves at an descent pace. It doesn’t seem overly long though the ending seems to have take forever to arrive. There are just some moments the Affleck seems to want to prolong for suspense that don’t need to be extended. The performances by Affleck in the lead and the supporting cast are not only believable but have arches. The biggest catch is that it seems to be weighed down by how important Affleck feels these events are and by focusing on details of the events it moves the film pace from being as fluid as it could be.

Though it does have a few historical flaws and pacing issues, “Argo” is quite a watchable film. It is one of those films that has a good balance of character development and story. “Argo” is just a film you have to be ready to sit through the almost 130 minutes of the film.

7/10