Ben Affleck Matures As Director

It's the time of the year when everybody is talking about which movies would be considered as Oscar contenders. The Master, Lincoln and Argo are all on the favourites' list. All three are based on true stories or events although The Master is a fictional depiction of a true-life cult religion leader.

I haven't seen Lincoln yet, but Argo would definitely win some Oscars if not the Best Director award for Ben Affleck. At the time when tension, once again, arises in the Middle East, particularly in Iran, this real story which happened in the '70s is very timely and relevant.

I was never a fan of Affleck's as an actor, but I saw all three of his feature films which are all excellent. Gone Baby Gone and The Town both took place in small towns near Boston and have a melancholic tone to the story treatment. But Argo is history - a very funny and suspenseful portrait of a real event. As one could imagine, nobody could probably film in Tehran now, so most of the movie was shot in nearby Turkey. In addition to Affleck, who plays CIA agent Tony Mendez, a cast of veteran actors support him - Canadian Victor Garber as the Canadian Ambassador to Iran; Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) as Mendez's CIA boss; John Goodman as Hollywood makeup director John Chambers; Alan Arkin as Hollywood producer Lester Siegel; and Tate Donovan (Damages) as the leader of the U.S. embassy staff in Tehran.

The movie keeps you sitting on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. The attention to detail is superb - from the hairstyle to the props and furniture to the wardrobe. The real protagonist Tony Mendez, I read, was very involved in the production of the movie and has now become a good friend of Affleck's. Canada had a huge role to play in the successful rescue of the embassy hostages and, in spite of some criticisms from Canadian media about the movie's disproportionate emphasis on the heroism of the CIA agent, I thought due credit has been given to the Canadian Ambassdaor who made this whole escape possible.

Chris Terrio, who wrote the screenplay, deserves an Oscar nomination. Not only are the dialogues funny, witty and tense, they also absolutely form the important skeleton to the entire movie. Dirty politics are still at play here, but at least all hostages have been rescued due to a silly but brilliant idea.

Ben Affleck has come a long  way from his Good Will Hunting and JLo-love-affair days. Film critics have even been calling him the Warren Beatty of the 21st century. He has definitely matured as a feature film director who deserved the thunderous applauses at most Argo screenings here in Toronto!