Argo (2012) - Wasted potential because of a one-sided attitude with many lengths and a lack of depth - 6/10 (29/03/13)

Argo won three Academy Awards, including one for the best movie of the year 2012 and this award was even presented by honourable First Lady Michelle Obama due to the patriotic and political content of the film. On my list, this movie though didn't even make it into my personal top twenty of that year. Let me explain you why.

Let's start with the positive things first. The costumes, decorations and locations of the movie are authentic and seem to be quite close to the actual events that inspired this film. The tension filled scenes in the very beginning of the movie at the embassy and at the very end at the airport are well done as well.

Now, let's talk about the negative facts. The movie includes too many overlong dialogues that go straight nowhere. Instead of showing the raising pressure inside the Canadian embassy and conflicts between all involved persons, one sees a terribly faceless main actor going around to make publicity for his fake movie and talk to more or less important people of Hollywood nobody cares about. After twenty first great minutes, this movie falls flat and bores until the final fifteen minutes or so. Add to this that the movie has no depth whatsoever. It only explains in a quite short opening sequence what led to the revolutionary events in Iran. The movie never explains further how all of this could happen and what that country would become afterwards. The emotions, fate and suffering of the people aren't portrayed at all by this film. One only sees a bunch of angry citizens that play the bad guys while the American diplomats portray the good guys. This one-sided view is quite shallow and filled with the usual stereotypes but one starts to get used to it by Hollywood by now. Add to this a sometimes more or less audible sound quality and some annoying shaky camera positions even though the overall production is quite decent.

In the end, the movie is rather disappointing for me. I was really looking forward to discover this flick as the historical events are really intriguing. The idea behind the script had in fact a lot of potential in my opinion. In the end, you won't learn anything new from this movie and it only superficially portrays the events that happened. Half of the movie or so shows us scenes in Hollywood or Washington instead of showing us what happens in the streets of Teheran and the true soul of that revolution. The entire middle part of the movie has important lengths, unnecessary dialogues and lacks of consistency. The actors are exchangeable and fail to touch me. This film is only saved by its promising beginning and its gripping ending.