Ar-tistic Triumph

Last night, I went to see the critically praised new film Argo. Based on true events, the movie depicts the extraction of six Americans from Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis of 1980, under the cover of filming a fake science fiction movie. It was directed by Ben Affleck, who has been carving out quite a career as a director between The Town (which I thought was not bad) and Gone Baby Gone (which I loved). And while he also stars in this movie, he once again proves that his real gifts are behind the camera.

I think that telling a suspenseful story based on actual events is about the hardest challenge you can take on in movie making. Even if the audience doesn't know every beat of the story, the vast majority of them will know exactly how the story ends up. Whether the movie has a happy ending or a tragic one, there's no real surprise, and thus little opportunity to create genuine suspense. Argo manages to do so anyway, in scene after scene.

The script by Chris Terrio skillfully walks the line between respecting actual events while playing up certain aspects (and yes, occasionally taking a few liberties) for the sake of heightening the emotional impact. It has an excellent opening sequence using movie storyboards to explain the geopolitical conditions between the U.S. and Iran before the hostage crisis. It then quickly leads into a tense opening act that depicts the attack on the U.S. embassy in Tehran that precipitates the story. And from there, it hardly ever lets up, except to insert a few well-placed moments of comic relief surrounding the doing of business in Hollywood.

Ben Affleck directs with a truly brisk pace, and tight editing. He really makes you feel the rising pressure and tension of the situation, and he gets excellent performance from an enormous cast of wonderful actors. Besides himself, there are wonderful turns by Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman. Many will also recognize Clea Duvall, Kyle Chandler, Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, and more from various television roles. And as an added bonus, the end credits include side-by-side comparisons of many of these actors with their real-life counterparts, revealing the lengths the production went to to match the performers to the actual people.

Assuming October isn't too early for most Academy voters to remember come Oscar season, I would expect Argo to be a nominee for this year's Best Picture. It certainly sets a respectable mark to beat for any other film that wants to claim the title. I give it an A-.