The following review is spoiler free and is meant to be read BEFORE seeing the movie.
The brilliance of Ben Affleck is that he recognizes
the impact of sound in movies better than many of his contemporaries. There is
a moment in Argo, which I saw in theaters, where a single gunshot punctures
your very sense of security in your seat. You know it’s coming. You dread it.
But that ability to foresee it makes it no less shocking in the hands of a
competent filmmaker.
Argo tells a stripped-down version of a true story
played out behind the scenes of the Iranian hostage crisis, as the CIA plans a
stunningly complicated and yet fascinatingly credible rescue mission by utilizing
a CIA asset who works in the film industry to help put on a fake movie, set to
film in Iran. The opening of Argo is tense despite knowing the end result,
because Affleck keeps the momentum rolling through perfect timing of
intercutting and showing the progressively dire situation deteriorate.
The film is able to maintain a languid pace at times
by always keeping the danger of discovery and failure dangling over the heads
of the hostages, who are posing as the fake film crew in Iran. What Affleck and
the editor have accomplished is an incredible feat of narrative storytelling,
as the one side of the story, filled with tense and sober intrigue in Iran, is
interwoven with an absurd and at times openly comedic story of putting on a
fake film production in Hollywood. One crucial scene mixes both of these
stories, with both tones playing simultaneously, and manages to be absurd and
horrifying at the same time, in exactly the way it was meant to.
The story is simplified, in many ways to the detriment
of real heroes who were left out of this telling of the story, and there are
times where it is obvious that events were heightened for dramatic tension and
suspense, but otherwise there is little to be said about Argo that isn’t high
praise. Argo represents another high point in Affleck’s directing career, coming
after the equally compelling The Town and the masterpiece that is Gone Baby
Gone. I have yet to see the widely panned Live by Night, so I might sit that
one out to keep my faith in Mr. Affleck’s directorial abilities.
Rating:
«««½
(3.5/4)
