By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Brad Anderson
Cast: Jon Hamm, Rosamund Pike, Dean Norris, Shea Whigham, Larry Pine, Mark Pellegrino, Idir Chender, Ben Affan, Leïla Bekhti, Alon Abutbul, Kate Fleetwood, Douglas Hodge, Jonny Coyne, Mohamed Zouaoui and Mohamed Attougui.
Rating: Very Good.
Brad Anderson, director of “The Machinist” and “Transsiberian” brings “Beirut”, a both drama/thriller with interesting results.
The movie centers in Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm) a fomer U.S. Diplomat in Beirut who recently suffers the lost of his wife Nadia (Leïla Bekhti) in a shooting in 1972, which also was the year the Munich terrorist attack took place.
Ten years later Mason is still a negotiator in the New England area turned into an alcoholic. One night he is approached by Sully (Douglas Hodge) a former client of his that tells him that he has to go back to Beirut to give a lecture.
At the beginning Mason doesn´t show any interest but ends up accepting and goes. While he is in Beirut everything will change when he meets CIA Field Agent Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike) and she will tell Mason that his presence is needed because Mason´s friend Cal Riley (Mark Pellegrino) is being held hostage.
Not only Mason will be in a race against time to save his friend´s life, but also will represent a chance for him to redeem himself.
“Beirut” is a very original thriller that reminds me of films like “Patriot Games”, “Clear and Present Danger” and “The Negotiator” due to the thematic of the film and the pacing is very similar.
The film was written by Academy Award Nominee Tony Gilroy and again crafted a brilliant screenplay with rich characters and a theme that relates to the reality that we are living today in America.
Brad Anderson´s directing was very good and I liked how he created that environment of Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. He directed very well his cast, the way how he played with the contrast in most of the scenes were very good and he captured brilliantly a hostile environment in a difficult country like Lebanon.
Going back to Gilroy´s screenplay the other thing that makes “Beirut” work is that the character´s conflicts were very good and the way how he played with progressive complications was very interesting.
Jon Hamm´s performance as Mason Skiles is convincing at all times. It´s not the first time that he plays an alcoholic in this case since we saw that in “Mad Men” where he played Don Draper, which catapulted his career. The reason why I´m mentioning he is convincing is that he portrays someone who has suffered so much and now all the things he has to do to save his friend´s life. I would say that so far this is one of the most complex and challenging roles that I have seen so far in his career.
Rosamund Pike as well is very good in this film and I like the chemistry between her and Hamm here. Another thing that I really liked of “Beirut” is that the film breaks with conventional rules that CIA agent falls for the main character but here was not the case and makes it very original.
On the other side there were elements of “Beirut” that I was didn´t care too much was the fact the scenes were a little bit too long and had the tendency to over explain when I felt that was completely unnecessary since we already got what was going on. Still I enjoyed this film.
Again I was kind of resilient when I first the trailer of this film, I still watched it and I think that does work.
hat being said “Beirut” is a very well made thriller and if you like this kind of films that plays with tension you are going to love this film.