Fake Movie vs. Real Politics

ARGO (2012)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Ben Affleck had has a wayward career as an actor, riding up and down from Kevin Smith's films to foolhardy decisions such as "Gigli" and "Surviving Christmas" (if you can stand to watch more than ten minutes of the latter, I applaud you). As a director, his career has supercharged and revitalized him, from "Gone Baby Gone" to "The Town." "Argo" is a more ambitious effort, parading around international conflicts in Iran during the 1970's which is a far cry from the Bostonian settings of his first two flicks. Does it work? Yes, but it is not a great movie. However, it is a fittingly suspenseful political thriller of sorts with enough intrigue, drama and a Hollywood satirical subplot to give it a lift. Of course, all this is based on fact, a true story that might've been concocted by a movie studio.

It is 1979 and a cancer-striken Shah of Iran, who wanted to Westernize his country, is ousted. The Ayatollah Khomeini is now in power and many Iranians are sympathetic to his cause and deplore the Westernization of anything, perhaps because it is a reminder of America. Things are awry in Iran - flags are burnt on the streets and the American Embassy is coming apart at the seams when the people decide to break down the fence and windows of the building. 52 Americans are taken hostage while six U.S. State Department officials from the Embassy escape to a Canadian ambassador's house. Then we see Iranian soldiers and children piecing together shredded documents and pictures with the hopes of identifying those six missing Americans.

The international situation is a scandal for the Carter administration and it has to be fixed, but how? CIA officials suggest the Americans flee in bikes but winter is nigh. An experienced CIA operative, Antonio J. Mendez (Ben Affleck), suggests an undercover operation where he can pose as a Hollywood scout seeking Iranian locations for a fictitious sci-fi project called "Argo." The six Americans will pose as a Canadian film crew. It sounds too good to be true but, hey, this is based on a true story.

Director Affleck and writer Chris Terrio have fun with the dynamics of Hollywood meetings in trying to drum up interest in a film that does not exist. Alan Arkin plays a no-nonsense Hollywood producer and the underrated John Goodman is a Hollywood makeup artist, John Chambers, who makes sly comments on the truth of Hollywood moviemaking. Most of these scenes are far more entertaining and involving than the Iranian incident. To be fair, Affleck builds up the tension towards the inevitable climax where the six Americans have to flee by plane (the actual incident did not end up as a chase scene) but it is the middle section involving Iran that doesn't quite jell. It has no real immediacy and no sense of real political strife - to be fair (with the exception of the realistic crowd protest scenes), it could have been set in any country. And when you cast an actress like Clea DuVall and leave her and the other Americans in the dark, you are risking losing interest in a situation that drives the movie. Interest doesn't wane and you want them out of the country, but did all the Iranian soldiers have to be so cartoonish?

Aside from the Hollywood backstory, the scenes that truly work are the CIA briefings and the incredible ignorance of some CIA officials. Bryan Cranston does solid work as the sympathetic but tough CIA chief who gives the dubious mission a go. Victor Garber (a fascinating actor since I first saw him in Atom Egoyan's "Exotica") is the kind Canadian ambassador who keeps calm in a crisis. Ben Affleck is clearly a better director than an actor but he is not bad as the bearded Mendez (charges from critics that an Anglo-Saxon played a Hispanic man are futile - I am Spanish and look as white as snow and the real Mendez is only partly Hispanic). My issue with Affleck is that he is not a charismatic actor and hardly exudes much personality. Of course, you have to keep calm in Iran and not stick out like a sore thumb. That could easily describe the film "Argo" - pleasant and fitfully entertaining time-filler that doesn't try to stand out like a sore thumb or a polemic. Just imagine, though, what someone like Costa-Gravas could have done with this.