Beirut

Probably the only thing this movie and the new Ghostbusters movie have in common are that people saw the trailer, got pissed, and I get the feeling that it hurt the exposure the movie got. Yes, the only reason I really know about this movie was because I read an article a while back about how people were complaining about how the trailer to this movie gave a seemingly inaccurate representation of the Middle East and the Lebanese Civil War... before they saw the movie... Now I don't know if that really hurt the box office of the movie because it never really seemed like this was positioned to be a huge hit, but people jumping on social media to boycott a film seems pretty silly in the first place, especially if the movie isn't half bad.

Beirut follows the story of a diplomat by the name of Mason Skiles (played by Jon Hamm). Skiles is living in Beirut in 1972 right before the Lebanese civil war in 1975 that changed the landscape of the country forever. He lives with his wife, Nadia (played by Leila Bekhti) and a young boy named Karim (played as a child by Yoav Sadian and later as an adult by Idir Chender) who the couple have started to sponsor and are helping him with education and a future life. But a tragedy hits and Skiles wife is murdered by terrorists.

Ten years later, Mason is back in the states and an alcoholic. However, he is brought back to Lebanon by the CIA who say that a terrorist group claims to have an old friend of his and they will only talk to him.

What follows is a relatively entertaining spy/historical drama/ action(ish) movie.

The first thing to mention is Jon Hamm because he really drives this movie and the only reason anybody really went off to see this movie. On one hand, I really like Jon Hamm. I didn't watch all of Mad Men, but I watched about 4 seasons before there wasn't anything more on Netflix and by the time there was I lost track of where I was.

On the other hand though, his character set up is pretty cookie cutter and predictable. He's a guy who seems to have it all, but then tragedy brings him down to his lowest point and he needs to go back into the arena one last time. And again, it's not bad, but the way that it's shown is pretty stereotypical and unoriginal. He's putting alcohol in his coffee so he's obviously having a rough time, but his drinking problem, while mentioned to be a potential issue, never really affects the overall mission.

The other issue with Jon Hamm's character and performance is that he's basically playing Don Draper. And that's not really a bad thing per se, but the same way American Made could be a spiritual sequel where Maverick smuggles drugs for the cartel, Beirut could be a spiritual sequel to Mad Men where Don Draper becomes a diplomat. It's not bad, especially if it's worked in the past, I just wish I could see some more out of Hamm.

The rest of the cast is actually pretty good but I can't say they're written very well. Dean Norris plays a shady CIA officer and I barely noticed him with hair. And as much as I love Rosamund Pike (check out Gone Girl you'll see what I mean), but like a lot of movies she's in, she's underwritten and not very developed. In this movie, she is just essentially a female character that plays second fiddle to Jon Hamm. I watched some of the bonus features and they had a 50 second clip trying to build up who this character was and I realized, she doesn't really have a character at all. Pike gives and okay performance because I think she's a good actress, but she doesn't add much to the movie at all besides adding an active female character.

Probably the biggest issue I have with the movie is that there is the inklings of a really good movie. There's a lot of real potential drama builders in this movie like Don Draper's alcohol problem, his relationship with the young boy who he was a pseudo father to, the fact he basically loses his groove because of tragedy. But as it stands, the movie is just too predictable and lacking in real action or drama to make it memorable. The way the story progresses is pretty predictable because it's set up so predictably but it didn't have to be that way. There were a lot of potential and great actors who still gave pretty good performances but in the end we get an okay spy thriller (kinda) and I was left wondering what the whole point of it all was.

Again, this movie's trailer drew criticism for being another stereotypical white man in a foreign land saving the day film but in reality this movie wasn't good because it didn't back the story up with anything meaningful. It's not even a historically true story. It's just set in the time period of the Lebanese Civil War right before the invasion of Israel in 1982. I have to admit that that's an interesting setting, especially for a spy film as the CIA was present in Beirut dealing with the PLO and international tensions at the time. The issues people should have with this movie shouldn't be based in any racial tensions based on a trailer, it should be with the quality of the film as a whole and personally, I thought it was fine. Not great, but fine.

In many ways, this movie reminds me a lot of Bridge of Spies. I still really enjoy Bridge of Spies and both that movie and this movie had elements about it that I really enjoyed and made the watching experience entertaining. But I really haven't thought about Bridge of Spies since I saw it and I get the feeling that upon a second viewing, I would find more issues with the film that I originally thought. The difference is that I was able to notice the flaws while watching and I doubt I'll really remember this movie in a week or so. If you're like me and you like stories about spies, the 1970s and 80s, are intrigued by Middle Eastern history and international affairs, or just like Jon Hamm, you might find some enjoyment in this film like I did, but this is probably going to be barely a blip in the conversations of movies I watched in 2018 and deserves just kind of a "meh".

But did you see Beirut? Were you one of the people who complained about the trailer and watched it still? If you did I'd be interested to get your take on the film but I doubt too many people, regardless of their thoughts on the trailer saw this movie. Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll see you next time!