Amazingly (to me, anyway) I loved this film! It actually succeeded in being very very funny at times (though calling it a comedy is slightly insane), which I think made it all the more powerful in terms of its telling its "true" story.
I can't quite believe it myself, but I thought it was extremely well directed - at least until towards the end, as I did think it lost it a bit when it changed from a calm, sometimes almost Michael Mann-esque pace and style to a far more mainstream Hollywood-paced cutting to make the end more "cinematic" (i.e. fake) as the journey towards the airport began and progressed. And believe me, suggesting this film - any film - has Michael Mann-like direction is a huge compliment from me. I am not entirely sure what struck me about it to make that point - I saw it a few days ago, and should've reviewed it then, not now! - but the pace and the style and the mise-en-scene all contributed, as did the use of music, the use of close-ups, and also the focus, I suppose, on the meandering threads of the central character's life... And the early sequences in the Embassy, especially, were beautifully paced and choreographed and shot. I still can't quite believe it! The sense of rising urgency, the seemingly silly (but ultimately very important) obsession with destroying documents, the looks on Embassy staff and Iranian citizens' faces... all very dramatic, very engaging, very intense - but never over-done, and without ever resorting to theatrical screams or caricatures.
It really was a shame it went a bit pear-shaped at the end. In some ways, pursuing the Michael Mann route might've saved it: i.e., had Affleck drawn out the film anther 45 minutes, he might've avoided the too-fast-paced problems, and carried on making a persuasively political and emotive film, rather than a sort of escape flick. Who knows. Maybe not!
The casting was brilliant: Tate Donovan and Zeljko Ivanek were both in it - fairly small roles, but amazing and I love them both... and, seriously, JOHN GOODMAN was in it. Wonderful! He was his usual excellent self, and worked well alongside Alan Arkin... the hostages were excellent (and I dig the 1970s clothes and hair, I have to say)... and a small highlight for me (which should embarrass me but doesn't) is that the Canadian ambassador is played by none other than Victor Garber (Sidney's dad in ALIAS!).
You'll notice I've mentioned not one actress's name. This is because there are barely any women in the film. It's about a CIA operation in the 1970s. Enough said.
I don't feel like I am doing this film justice. I thought it was moving and genuinely funny at times, that it managed to acknowledge that whatever their means of displaying it (hostage-taking not being ideal), the Iranians were far from 'wrong' in what they did, ultimately, and I do think it's a positive film to make and release in the current global, deeply racist, climate. Whether or not it'll be read and recieved that way, I don't know. But the body of the film - again, though, NOT so much the end - works for me.
The juxtapositioning of the crazy
Hollywood nonsense and the hostage crisis, by the way - especially the
sequence intercutting the reading-through of the fake film with the
realities of life in Tehran - was really effective, really well done. It
was never crass, and never ridiculed anyone. It managed to be hilarious
at times, but also very poignant. Quite an achievement given the subject
matter of the film, and the frippery that makes up so much of what
Hollywood, in contrast, is and does.
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