Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2012

When Islamists took US embassy staff hostage in Tehran in 1979, six were able to elude capture and hide at the Canadian ambassador’s residence. So the CIA sent, in effect, a film crew to rescue them. As a film plot, this would cause severe eye rolling and sighs of “only in the movies” if it were not, well, true. Ben Affleck’s most excellent third directorial effort (Gone Baby Gone and The Town) shows how it was done. “Exfiltration expert” Tony Mendez’s (Affleck) “best bad idea” was to have the six pose as a Canadian film crew there for a few days to scout locations for a cheesy Star Wars rip-off. To set up their covers, he went to Hollywood to enlist the help of a couple of old pros (John Goodman and Alan Arkin), and the film frequently cuts to these two for a little Hollywood satire when events in Iran get too tense. These guys merit their own movie. There are no gunfights, car chases or explosions. It’s smart, briskly paced, beautifully crafted and offers a growing sense of foreboding. And while the contrived, embellished finale nearly threatens to undo all these good things, it’s undeniably entertaining. Hey, it’s the movies.