Many people blame Arkin here for playing the same character as he did in his previously Oscar-nominated (and winning) performance in Little Miss Sunshine. It's really undeniable that his performances are similar. But it's not his fault, these characters just are similar and there's nothing Arkin could do with this fact. The only thing he could do is just play it the best way he was able to, and that's not exactly what he did.
He succeeded to be funny and likable, but failed to be remarkable. He really isn't the first thing that will come to your mind when you think of Argo. And he's not even the second, not the third thing. The fact that he doesn't have much screen-time also doesn't help him much.
His presence in his scenes is certainly nice, but I think this character offers him more options to do with it, than he actually did. In my eyes he was a little bit overshadowed by John Goodman, which also wasn't somehow remarkable, but at least he did something with his role. But that's another story...
When I was thinking about Arkin's best scene, I realized there is no best scene of his performance. It's because his performance consists of many extremely short moments. There's no scene, where he would shine, or be even able to shine. Therefore it's not just him, who I blame for making this character so lackluster. But I was forced into telling you one moment, I would go for the scene he's getting the rights for shooting sci-fi Argo.
So, to sum it up: Arkin plays a nice and likable character in Argo, which just didn't get enough space to shine. But Arkin didn't bring much effort to it, either...
The chances of winning an Oscar: The lowest from all of the nominees. I would be extremely surprised, if he won.
Well I agree again there is nothing special about his performance I do have to disagree on a few point. In terms of effort I do think he gives as much effort that this part requires, and he really is as remarkable as this character really could be. I also don't think he was overshadowed by John Goodman as once Arkin shows up Goodman usually is just there not really saying anything.
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