it's the best bad idea we have

i just couldn't stay away from argo.  i try and be conscientious about movie ratings, but argo had my name written all over it.

first, it's ben affleck, who i've loved since good will hunting when everyone else was falling all over themselves to get in line behind matt damon.  don't get me wrong, matt damon is great, but ben affleck has always been a little more "me". there was a time around those jennifer lopez years where i hid my love in a closet, but thankfully, the jennifer garner years (who doesn't love them some alias?) have allowed me to open that door, and open it wide.

more importantly though, i grew up in a world where employees of the "state department" were my sunday school teachers, middle-eastern souvenirs turned out to be live grenades, the words "assassination attempt" were part of my childhood vocabulary, and there was a day where my father sat in ronald reagan's oval office and was 'encouraged' to hold the iran-contra scandal he had discovered.

iran was a place i was aware of, even at a young age.  in fact, despite the fact that we lived in a pretty "white" northern virginia suburb, my best neighborhood friend, bita, was first generation iranian-american.

i was fascinated by her.  i loved listening to her speak farsi and tell stories about her home.  in hindsight, i wonder if my dad found it ironic that during the time iran was so heavily featured on the world stage (and in his life) that it was also so relevant in my world, for completely different reasons.

at any rate, when i first heard about argo, i was excited and hesitant.  i was too young (3) to remember any of the details of its non-fictional origin story, so i was curious and interested.  it reminded me of my childhood after all (how many people equate iran and hostages with memories of their childhood, i ask you?). and it's also ben affleck.  on the flip side, i've been on a run of  crappy movie choices lately, and i didn't want to be disappointed by this one.  i waited for the reviews to come in, and was blown away by the high rankings.  and that made me even more hesitant.  with great expectations comes the very large possibility that they will not be met.

but i got over it, and it's one of the few times my great expectations have been exceeded in a movie theater. after all, how does a movie where you already know the ending (spoiler alert: the hostages get out) keep you engaged and wondering what's going to happen next?!

somehow, it did.  somehow knowing that there was a happy, real, ending, did not lessen one ounce of  the tension i felt.  i white-knuckled it through the particularly stressful moments and felt genuine concern for the characters, forgetting time and time again that they would in fact escape, and wondering which moment would be THE moment where it would all fall apart.  it's what makes the movie genius.  perfectly cast, acted, and directed, it gives you just enough, but not too much, and all at the right times and in the right ways.  it's been a long time since a movie hit the mark for me like this one hit the mark.

and my last, lingering, thought, is one of gratitude. i am grateful for the unsung heroes. the ones whose faces don't make the six o'clock news, and whose names simply become stars carved on marble walls.  and i am grateful for the sacrifices that i don't even know have been made in order to secure the freedoms that i and all other americans enjoy.