Monday Morning Movie Reviewer: Argo

I want to start by saying that this film is very good. I want to start by saying that because the majority of the review will consist of how it isn’t great and may be a slight disappointment if (like me) you loved Ben Affleck’s last two movies: Gone Baby Gone and The Town.

What Works: The strongest thing in the movie is the fact that you’re watching a true story, one you might not believe if it were fiction. [It just proves the old Mark Twain adage “The difference between fiction and non-fiction, is that fiction needs to be credible.”] It’s very apparent that Affleck has stuck as close as he possibly can to the actual events, and has loaded up on accurate details specific to the case and time period. It also helps immensely that he’s assembled a crack supporting cast of actors who are under-appreciated (the great Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Titus Welliver, Philip Baker Hall, Taye Diggs, Kyle Chandler, etc.) and given them all at least one nice, low-key moment. I also particularly enjoyed the feeling that even though you’re watching events that happened over 30 years ago, they very much feel like the seeds of what’s going on in the Middle East today.

What Doesn’t Work: I found this to be a solid, well-crafted, good movie that never makes the leap into a great one. I know Affleck (the director) was going for a very muted 70’s style and color palette, but the thing does drag, and the energy (even in the suspense sequences) never gets ratcheted up to where it needs to be. We see none of the style, flair, and wild confidence of Affleck’s last two movies (moments in The Town practically vibrate with electricity, and Gone Baby Gone is criminally under-appreciated for the gut-punch ending alone), and that’s a shame. It almost feels like he’s overly reverent of the material, and it fences him in as a filmmaker. Plus, both of those last two films centered around a knock-out supporting performance that was honored at Oscar time (Amy Ryan in GBG, and Jeremy Renner in The Town) but there’s no energized, morally gray figure here. The stakes require everything to be a bit too black and white, and that makes it a little less interesting than the moral quandaries Affleck has explored up to this point.

What I Would Have Done Differently: Let at least one supporting player shine instead of having twenty that do a good job…Make the suspense sequences feel more suspenseful by editing them in a more nerve wracking (and less routine) way…Perhaps ditched some of the fuzzy 70’s mannerisms that create a slight distance between the movie and its audience.