Argo (2012) - Review

People have an insane amount of hate for Ben Affleck.  Or they used to, at least.  I don't really understand why; the guy is a pretty solid actor.  I mean sure, he's been in some garbage.  Gigli is unfathomably bad, but it's not really Affleck's fault.  He's also in some early Michael Bay nonsense, but again, hardly Affleck's fault.  Daredevil's bad, but again... you get where I'm going with this; he doesn't deserve the hate is what I'm saying.

But in 2007, with the film Gone Baby Gone, Affleck fell back into the public's good graces when people started recognizing his talent as a director.  This success continued in 2010's The Town and in 2012's based-on-a-book-based-on-a-true-story Argo.  It really is an interesting story; a CIA operative goes undercover as a Hollywood producer to save some hostages in Iran during an embassy takeover.

The film is a bit slow, preferring to take its time developing the elaborate cover in detail, rather than focusing on the suspense of the situation.  In fact, there's really little to no suspense at all; it's definitely more of a drama than a thriller, and that's what I find really interesting about the movie.  Most directors would have played up the danger aspect of it, but aside from the opening sequence (and one near-miss at the end), there's not a lot of suspense.  It really is about Affleck and his team building up this enormous lie from the ground up, and it's oddly compelling to watch.

Proving that he has chops as a director, Affleck has managed to wipe away any and all bad vibes with the moviegoing public, despite the recent uproar of Affleck being cast as the new Batman.  Chances are that won't go too well, but if it doesn't, all the man has to do is direct a couple more good films and he'll be right back on top again.