Ben Affleck is having a killer streak; after the Oscar-nominated Gone Baby Gone and The Town, Argo puts him in the director's chair for the third time, and should see him on the receiving end of plenty of attention come awards season. Intelligent but never too complicated, intense but never too sombre, Argo is without doubt one of the best movies of 2012.
Based on the true story set in 1979 Iran, six American embassy employees escape the capture of Islam militants and hide out in the Canadian Ambassador’s home. Before the Iranians discover their whereabouts and most likely publicly execute them, the CIA devise a plan to extract them; they pretend they are the film crew for an upcoming sci-fi movie named "Argo", and under the supervision of movie “director”/CIA professional extractor Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), go on a short location scouting mission around Iran, before high tailing it out of the country on a plane.
Argo has one of those so-unbelievable-it-has-to-be-true plots, and thanks to the well-written script and some truly outstanding supporting turns by the likes of Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Kyle Chandler and Clea DuVall, Affleck does a fantastic job of grounding the entire story. The only weak link in the acting is Affleck himself, who does not shine quite so brightly when surrounded by such stellar actors, and the character he plays is sort of dull.
But while Affleck in front of the camera may be a little lacklustre, the work he does behind it is anything but that. The late 70's/early 80's aesthetic is perfectly captured, and despite the vast amount of characters and the potentially convoluted plot, Affleck has such a command of the story that you'll never find yourself lost or confused. There is a healthy dose of humour to help lighten the mood throughout, but when it comes to the insanely tense climax, the term 'nail-biting' doesn't even come close to describing it. Clever, taut and anxiety-inducing, prepare to have your entire arm gnawed off.
