Argo

Argo

Spy games

Based on a true story.  No five words are as guaranteed to strike terror into the hearts of filmgoers as based on a true story.  You know that the film you’re about to see will be ponderous, worthy, that it’ll stick fairly close to the facts. 

Here and there a name may be changed to protect the innocent (or the guilty), liberties will be taken with the script to increase dramatic tension (the complete lack of any bridges in Braveheart’s depiction of the Battle of Stirling Bridge say) and a better looking actor is always cast in the starring role because, let’s face it, we’re a shallow bunch and Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are a lot easier on the eye than the real Bonnie and Clyde were.  Similarly, Salma Hayek rocked a monobrow as Frida Kahlo, Michael ‘Python’ Fassbender brought some sexy back to IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and no-one quite dribbles like Daniel Day Lewis. 

Every so often a film will come along that’s a little more unconventional, a Bronson or a Chopper, but most films based on a true story are deadly dull thrill-free affairs.  It’s hard to get too worked up about the fate of Tom Hanks and his fellow space monkeys in Apollo 13 when we know they all made it home safely while the leaden The King’s Speech managed to reduce one of the darkest moments of the Twentieth Century, Britain’s declaration of war and the start of World War 2, the deadliest conflict in human history, into a feel-good romp about an emotionally constipated, posho f*cktard overcoming his stutter with the help of Les Patterson.  It’s almost a miracle then that director/star Ben Affleck has managed to craft the most nail-biting piece of cinema of the year from a minor episode during 1979’s 444-day long Iran Hostage Crisis which ultimately saw incumbent President Jimmy Carter lose office to a victorious Ronald Reagan and sowed the seeds of 30 years of enmity between the US and Iran.

On November 4^th 1979, at the height of Iran’s Islamic Revolution which swept the Ayatollah Khomeini to power, militants storm the US Embassy in Tehran, taking hostage 52 Americans and demanding the return for trial of the US-backed, despotic former leader, the Shah.  But six embassy employees manage to escape, finding refuge in the home of the Canadian Ambassador (Victor Garber).  With it just a matter of time before the six are found and (probably) executed by the militants, it’s up to CIA exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) to get them out of the country safely. 

Recruiting Oscar winning make-up effects artist John Chambers (John Goodman) and veteran film producer Lester Seigel (Alan Arkin), Mendez comes up with a plan so crazy it just might work: they’ll create a fake Star Wars-style sci-fi B-movie called Argo as cover, complete with script, production office, storyboards and phony adverts in magazines like Variety with Mendez as producer. As Chambers so eloquently puts it: “So you want to come to Hollywood and act like a big shot without actually doing anything?  You'll fit right in!”  Cover story in place, Mendez will fly into Tehran on a recce looking for exotic locations and then he’ll smuggle the escapees out as phony Canadian members of his fake production team (screenwriter, cameraman, director, etc.).

But with the Iranian Security Forces closing in and the White House losing its nerve, can Mendez really get himself and the escaped diplomats out of Iran alive?

Ben Affleck’s third film as director takes him away from his native Boston (scene of previous outings Gone Baby Gone and The Town) and sees him putting his degree in Middle Eastern affairs to good use to deliver a tight, economical, well-balanced, even-handed thriller that’s remarkably free of Hollywood cliché even as it’s satirising the movie business.  Shot with a blue and beige ‘70s feel by Brokeback Mountain’s Rodrigo Prieto, Istanbul doubling for a wintry Tehran, Argo may just be the best American film of the year (yeah, you read that right, screw over-hyped snoozefest The Master), Chris Terrio’s smart, funny script effortlessly ratcheting up the tension, Affleck delivering a propulsive, edge-of-the-seat piece of pure cinema that’s genuinely exciting and surprising despite being based on a true story.  With Skyfall currently setting the UK box office alight and being anointed as Best Bond Everä, Affleck’s spy thriller is almost the anti-Bond, Affleck’s low-key, quietly heroic Mendez trying to be as invisible as possible, outwitting and deceiving his adversaries, while Daniel Craig’s Bond is busy dodging crashing Tube trains, feeding baddies to Komodo dragons and blowing up his Aston Martin while the fat lady (Adele) sings.  Skyfall, like it’s hero is a blunt instrument.  Argo is a far subtler beast; an intense, increasing claustrophobic, intelligent film about the intelligence game.

His own performance quiet and unshowy, Affleck is essentially the film’s straight man, the quiet centre around which everyone else revolves.  John Goodman and Alan Arkin turn in terrific comic performances as the Hollywood movers and shakers while Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston is excellent as Mendez’s cynical boss and, both as a director and as an actor, Affleck is wise enough not to try and upstage them, giving them the room to provide some much-needed humour without ever undercutting the story.  There’s also terrific ensemble work from Clea DuVall, Tate Donovan, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham and Kerry Bishé as the beleagured diplomats suddenly offered hope after months of paranoia and fear, the increasingly stellar McNairy possibly just edging out the others as the whiny, sceptical group spokesman who doesn’t trust Affleck’s smooth spook.  There’s also some fantastic supporting performances from the cast’s facial hair, Affleck in particular sporting a shaggy beard every man in the audience will envy.

While Affleck may take a few liberties with the truth, particularly in a last-minute, race-against-time climactic chase sequence, Argo remains a stunning, suspense-filled ride that somehow manages to be as unexpectedly funny as it is nail-biting.  Equal parts political thriller, Great Escape-style caper movie and biting Hollywood satire that if there’s any justice will be rewarded handsomely come Oscar time.  And if you don’t agree, as Arkin’s Seigel is fond of saying: “Argo f*ck yourself!”

David Watson

Directed by:

Ben Affleck

Written by:

Chris Terrio

Produced by:

George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Ben Affleck

Starring:

Bryan Cranston, Ben Affleck, John Goodman, Kyle Chandler, Michael Parks, Clea DuVall, Tate Donovan, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham, Kerry Bishé and Alan Arkin

Genres:

Comedy, Drama

Language:

English

Runtime:

2 hours

Certificate:

15

Rating:

5/5

UK Release Date:

Wednesday 7^th November