Argo is an historical fiction piece loosely based on events surrounding the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979/1980. Affleck directs as well as playing the lead role of Tony Mendez, a real-life CIA agent who assisted in the extraction of six American diplomats from Iran. He is joined by a colorful cast of supporting actors, including Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, and Alan Arkin, playing a CIA supervisor and Hollywood make-up artist and producer respectively. The CIA decides the "least bad idea" for safely extracting the six diplomats from Iran is to create a cover story claiming they are a Canadian film crew on a location scout for a new science fiction film called "Argo".
Despite some apparent historical inaccuracies, the film's artistic apex is formed by blending real footage of the events being portrayed with dramatic recreation. It opens up with some exposition on the history of Iran and its political history including strained, to say the least, relations with the United States. The history lesson is delivered by a narrator over images of storyboard drawings transforming into actual photographs, setting a trend that will continue throughout the film. The opening action masterfully transfers back and forth between a recreation of a riot outside of the American Embassy in Tehran and archival footage of the real-life events. Several details from the footage are recreated by actors to the point where it might seem like the camera was simply changing resolution.
While the story itself is cohesive, the film changes feeling a couple of times. It goes from suspense during the scenes focusing on the hostages, to slightly dark comedy while building credibility in Hollywood, back to the suspense of the execution of the operation. I wouldn't say it hurts the film, but it seems to break it up a tad so that there is not much transfer of how dire the situation at hand is to the bits taking place in Hollywood. There is however, occasional movement in the other direction, switching back briefly to Arkin and Goodman from Affleck and the CIA office.
The other thing that I thought was a little bit weak was the establishing of a relationship with the characters. Affleck for a lot of the film is the central focus, or at least is present in most scenes, and is more or less a strong silent type. He's got some classic back story as a husband and father who doesn't get to spend time with his wife and child due to his job, but there are only a couple of short scenes that establish this. The one in particular features Affleck on the phone with his child which, while establishing the relationship, serves more to move the plot forward as this is where the "let's create a fake film" idea originates. When the character reunites with his family later on, there is not such a catharsis as there might be in other films that use this sort of plot.
Another weak character-viewer relationship is established with the both the escaped hostages and the ones currently being held by their Iranian captors. There are six escapees, the back story of whom we get from a CIA briefing. We know their names, their jobs, and the fact two of them are husband and wife but that's about it. They are also featured on screen as purely secondary to Affleck, some feeling reluctant about the plan, others realizing it's probably their best option. You know that they are the reason the whole film is taking place and I guess that should be enough for you to feel connected to them. As for the hostages still in Iranian captivity, they are barely featured after the initial taking of the embassy. Where they do appear seems to just serve as an additional way to demonize the captors and after the rescue of the six, they become an after thought.
I don't like doing the whole number ratings thing so I'll just say this: kudos to Affleck for directing Argo, a film that is deserving of its best picture nomination; however, if it doesn't win, I wouldn't be surprised.
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