newjerseynewsroom.com

BY NANCY R. MANDELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

It’s a fact: Truth can be stranger than fiction. In the case of “Argo,” the new thriller starring and directed by Ben Affleck, it can also be harder to believe!

Thanks to extensive pre-screening promotion as well as the tragic relevance of the recent massacre at the American Embassy in Libya, most filmgoers are aware that “Argo” is based on the true story of how six Americans were “extracted” from Iran during the hostage crisis that imprisoned 52 of their compatriots in the American embassy in Teheran for 444 days beginning on Nov. 4, 1979.

Of course while we’ve been made aware of the incident now, it was a little known sidebar to the hostage crisis that ended Jimmy Carter’s presidency the following year. And given that a good percentage of audiences never actually experienced the events of 40 years ago, Affleck makes a wise decision to open the film with an effectively illustrated narrative that places America’s relations with Iran in historical context ranging from ancient Persia to the Shah—before plunging into the chaos of the embassy takeover in ’79.

The scenes that follow fluctuate between news footage of the protest outside and the apparently isolated inside offices of the six Americans who will eventually make their unofficial way out of the embassy onto the street. Among them are two married couples —Clea DuVall and Christopher Denham as Cora and Mark Lijek, Kerry Bishé and Scoot McNairy as Kathy and Joe Stafford—and two men, Rory Cochrane and Tate Donovan, all assigned to various embassy posts. But since they are pretty much characterless throughout the movie, it’s hard to identify with any of them, and it’s only during the closing credits that we realize they seem to have been cast primarily for a resemblance to the real-life characters they portray.

The performances that do stand out are Affleck’s as the CIA “exfiltration” expert called in to get the so-called Canadian houseguests out, and those of Alan Arkin and John Goodman as two Hollywood veterans whose talents Mendez enlists to carry out his bizarre scheme of using the pretext of a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a sci-fi film to provide the escapees with false identities and a legitimate exit. While Affleck-the-actor underplays his role, nicely providing a steady base for all the outrageous goings-on, Affleck-the-director gives Goodman and Arkin all the rope they need to lighten up the action and put a Hollywood spin on a Hollywood-worthy story. They could take their act on the road! Goodman is terrific as the jaded makeup artist who could have been responsible for all that 70s-style facial hair that renders the period with such painful veracity. And Arkin simply gets all the best lines and delivers them perfectly.

“If I’m doing a fake movie," he announces, “it’s going to be a fake hit!”

(“Argo,” by the way, is the title of the cheesy science fiction script they choose to produce.)