MOVIE OF THE WEEK #1 (10/12/12): ARGO
"I didn't need wardrobe to create my costume ... I've had it in my storage locker for years!" Lester Seigel (Alan Arkin) takes a moment to contemplate the idea Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) has that could save – or end up dooming – six Americans holed up in Iran in a scene from the based on a true story tale of ARGO. Credit: © 2012 Walt Disney Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham, Kerry Bishé, Kyle Chandler, Sheila Vand and Chris Messina
WRITER(S): Chris Terrio (screenplay); Antonio J. Mendez (The Master of Disguise selection on which the story is based) and Joshuah Bearman ("The Great Escape," Wired Magazine)
WRITER(S): Chris Terrio (screenplay); Antonio J. Mendez (The Master of Disguise selection on which the story is based) and Joshuah Bearman ("The Great Escape," Wired Magazine)
DIRECTOR: Ben Affleck
THE PLOT: Based on real life events, Argo stars Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez, an agent with the CIA who gets called in to help solve a crisis. But this is not your typical crisis by crisis standards; oh no, this is a crisis where it's going to take a major level of creativity to resolve.
Going back in time 32 years after the fact, Argo details the how Mendez helped craft a plan to free six Americans who fled the American Embassy in Tehran. You see, the American fled the embassy after it was taken over by Iranian revolutionaries upset at the U.S. Government for providing asylum to controversial leader Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in America.
Lucky enough to escape the building before their co-workers were captured and taken hostage, the six Americans – Bob Anders (Tate Donovan), Lee Schatz (Rory Cochrane) and the husband and wife pairs of Mark (Christopher Denham) and Cora Lijek (Clea DuVall) as well as Kathy (Kerry Bishé) and her dissenting husband Joe Stafford (Scoot – yes, Scoot – McNairy) – take up residence in the home of the Ken Taylor (Victor Garber), the Canadian Ambassor in Iran. However, once the revolutionaries begin to literally piece together the identities of the six Americans who escaped the embassy before they took it over, Mendez knows he doesn't have much time to rescue them.
Knowing the revolutionaries would have the only way in and out of Iran – the airport – on lockdown, CIA Assistant Deputy Director Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston) calls in Mendez, the top "exflitration" expert at his disposal. And once they realize all their other options for possible covers to get the six Americans out of Iran are either not feasible or situationally flawed, Mendez comes up with the idea that just might save them: Go in as a fake film producer scouting locations in Iran for a science fiction movie with his team (the six Americans at the Canadian ambassador's house) that he will be meeting later. But to make the plan work, Mendez is going to need some serious insider help.
Enter Hollywood.
Pairing up with innovative makeup man John Chambers (John Goodman) of Planet of the Apes fame and Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin as a composite of producers according to Argo screenwriter Chris Terrio), Mendez creates Studio Six Productions, a fictional film company. Optioning a script and doing all the necessary things needed to give their "film" creditability, Mendez heads to Iran to get his "fellow film crew members" out safely.
But will their story have a Hollywood ending?
Going back in time 32 years after the fact, Argo details the how Mendez helped craft a plan to free six Americans who fled the American Embassy in Tehran. You see, the American fled the embassy after it was taken over by Iranian revolutionaries upset at the U.S. Government for providing asylum to controversial leader Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in America.
Lucky enough to escape the building before their co-workers were captured and taken hostage, the six Americans – Bob Anders (Tate Donovan), Lee Schatz (Rory Cochrane) and the husband and wife pairs of Mark (Christopher Denham) and Cora Lijek (Clea DuVall) as well as Kathy (Kerry Bishé) and her dissenting husband Joe Stafford (Scoot – yes, Scoot – McNairy) – take up residence in the home of the Ken Taylor (Victor Garber), the Canadian Ambassor in Iran. However, once the revolutionaries begin to literally piece together the identities of the six Americans who escaped the embassy before they took it over, Mendez knows he doesn't have much time to rescue them.
Knowing the revolutionaries would have the only way in and out of Iran – the airport – on lockdown, CIA Assistant Deputy Director Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston) calls in Mendez, the top "exflitration" expert at his disposal. And once they realize all their other options for possible covers to get the six Americans out of Iran are either not feasible or situationally flawed, Mendez comes up with the idea that just might save them: Go in as a fake film producer scouting locations in Iran for a science fiction movie with his team (the six Americans at the Canadian ambassador's house) that he will be meeting later. But to make the plan work, Mendez is going to need some serious insider help.
Enter Hollywood.
Pairing up with innovative makeup man John Chambers (John Goodman) of Planet of the Apes fame and Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin as a composite of producers according to Argo screenwriter Chris Terrio), Mendez creates Studio Six Productions, a fictional film company. Optioning a script and doing all the necessary things needed to give their "film" creditability, Mendez heads to Iran to get his "fellow film crew members" out safely.
But will their story have a Hollywood ending?
THE TAKE: Remember how justa few years ago Ben Affleck was a national punchline following a failed romance (and film) with Jennifer Lopez while his Good Will Hunting buddy Matt Damon's career was booming? Then, Affleck decided to re-focused his career, taking smaller parts in movies like the long-forgotten Extract and the still relevant drama Company Men before making a nice, respectable turn behind the camera with 2007's Gone Baby Gone. And following the release of 2010's The Town, the inevitable "Ben Affleck is back!" buzz hit full force.
Argo is proof the man knows what he's doing and all the praise he's receiving is earned.
Here's what makes Argo work so well – [1] A solid performance by Affleck where you feel as if you are actually in the situation, [2] A great humorous performance by Alan Arkin as the slick-talking, seen-it-all Lester and the [3] Tense, suspenseful – even if it is a bit clichéd at times – nature of the story where there is not a wasted moment from start to finish.
Taking a true story of this nature already provides a great backdrop for a story; I mean, it is pretty unbelievable if you think stop and think about the premise and all the things that had to fall in place for it to happen. You don't have to do that, however, as Affleck and company do all the heavy lifting – and successfully so – by bringing you into the world they were facing and all its tension, doubt and nail biting fear (both real and imagined). Sure, anyone can simply Google "1980 Iran Hostage Crisis" and find out the results of the situation, but Argo puts you front and center in the action so you can't help but feel it all for yourself.
That's the mark of a great director and a great film, which is exactly what Argo is.
Argo is proof the man knows what he's doing and all the praise he's receiving is earned.
Here's what makes Argo work so well – [1] A solid performance by Affleck where you feel as if you are actually in the situation, [2] A great humorous performance by Alan Arkin as the slick-talking, seen-it-all Lester and the [3] Tense, suspenseful – even if it is a bit clichéd at times – nature of the story where there is not a wasted moment from start to finish.
Taking a true story of this nature already provides a great backdrop for a story; I mean, it is pretty unbelievable if you think stop and think about the premise and all the things that had to fall in place for it to happen. You don't have to do that, however, as Affleck and company do all the heavy lifting – and successfully so – by bringing you into the world they were facing and all its tension, doubt and nail biting fear (both real and imagined). Sure, anyone can simply Google "1980 Iran Hostage Crisis" and find out the results of the situation, but Argo puts you front and center in the action so you can't help but feel it all for yourself.
That's the mark of a great director and a great film, which is exactly what Argo is.
PARTING SHOT: A film that proves Affleck still has the acting talent to match his burgeoning directing skills, Argo proves sometimes fake movies can produce the best real ones.
RATING (OUT OF FOUR BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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