BEN Affleck’s third feature-length offering in the director’s chair (after 2007’s Gone Baby Gone and The Town in 2010), works the adage that truth is stranger than fiction.
Tapping into one of the CIA’s more surreal declassified files, Affleck stars as exfiltration specialist Tony Mendez, secretly rewarded for his audacious plan to bust free six US citizens hiding in the Canadian embassy at the height of the hostage crisis in Iran’s heaving capital city, Tehran, in 1979.
Mendez hits upon the idea of faking a sci-fi film’s scouting mission as the cover story for his breakout plans, enlisting the aid of Lester Segal (Alan Arkin), a Hollywood producer in his twilight years, and makeup supremo and sometime CIA ally John Chambers (John Goodman).
This trio steals the show, while Scoot McNairy and Clea DuVall stand out among the hostages and Victor Garber is stoic as the Canadian ambassador. Bryan Cranston also relishes his turn as a volatile CIA boss.
It’s a rare treat that a true-life film this accomplished is as breezily enjoyable. A catch-up on recent Iranian history, delivered in storyboard form at the beginning, is informative without being patronising, and the movie doesn’t shy from highlighting the duplicitous actions of the US government.
Affleck masterfully cranks up the tension. It’s nail-biting without resorting to car chases and gunfights (for the most part), and tightly focused on the personal relationships between the secret six.
As Mendez, Affleck is scruffily, endearingly admirable, unafraid of overturning the direct command of the president for the sake of the mission. The fact that the real-life agent couldn’t even show his son his bravery award until Clinton released the file in 1997 is mind-bending. Even if you know how it pans out, I challenge you not to be on the edge of your seat during the popcorn-scattering conclusion to this daring mission.
