Film Review: ARGO

Ben Affleck in his Daddy's sport coat.

I would like to publicly apologize to Ben Affleck for all the bad things I have said about him in the past. These include statements like, "He can't act his way out of a paper bag,"  "He's as boring as a block of wood," and, when he was half of Bennifer, "His girlfriend is a slut." After seeing ARGO, the new film he co-produced (with George Clooney) and directed, and in which he stars, I now want to go on record as saying the man is a movie-God who walks among us.

ARGO is a great, great, great movie. If I were a professional film critic, I would call it a "must-see, tense, political thriller with touches of comedy and profound lessons applicable to America's current foreign disturbances." But since this is just my personal blog I can say it's ridiculously intense, laugh-out-loud funny, complicated enough and scary. It tells the true story of a decades-old political situation--the 1979 seizure of American hostages by Iranian radicals--by weaving real footage in with Hollywood artifice. To the director's credit, most of the time you can hardly tell which is which.

Ben plays an elite CIA agent called in to mastermind the release of six of the hostages, and he acts the part with both flair and sobriety-- two quite different attitudes that are rarely seen in one person, at least at the same time. Helping him pull off what has since become known as the "Canadian Caper" are John Goodman, fatter and jollier than ever, and Alan Arkin, older and balder but still a hoot. But the true star of the movie is the cast of thousands portraying the angry mob that storms the embassy, causing me to steer clear of Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Syria, Jordan, or in fact anyplace you see on the news where mobs of men in flip-flops are throwing rocks, flags are being brandished aloft, and cars are aflame in the village square. I am also strengthening my surveillance of our Persian cat, and as of today Gizmo is banned from our bedroom while we sleep.

Don't get me wrong--it's not like ARGO is without flaws. In one scene, Ben's big-shouldered tweed sport coat seems like the wrong size and maybe it belongs to his Daddy. I found this annoying and wondered how the wardrobe lady missed it. Other than that, the movie's perfect.