Intense Political Thriller Unites Stars For International Incident

For those like me who somehow missed this film upon release, Beirut centers on a diplomat from the United States government named Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm), who lost his wife during a terrorist attack in Lebanon 10 years before the film’s main narrative takes place.

Stricken with grief, Skiles returns to the United States to work as a labor arbitrator, self-medicating with alcohol and refusing to seek professional therapy. One day, an old colleague seeks out Mason to provide him with a new assignment back in Beirut, much to the diplomat’s dismay.

Despite his reservations, Mason ventures back to the foreign locale with little information on his assignment, only to learn that he has specifically been requested to cool down a terrorist hostage situation with the same group that killed his wife years earlier.

Things become even more personal for Mason when he learns that one of the hostages, Karim, is an associate of his who was present on the day that his wife was killed. As Beirut continues building to an explosive climax, the film delicately balances international diplomacy, terrorism, and American intervention, all in a film with such tightly-wound pacing, you may have to pause and do some cardio halfway through to calm yourself down.

Beirut was written by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story scribe Tony Gilroy and directed by Brad Anderson. While the film’s setting, pacing, and practical effects do a lot of heavy lifting, the talent of the massive ensemble cast is definitely its biggest draw. Beirut stars Jon Hamm in the leading role, alongside Rosamund Pike, Shea Whigham, Larry Pine, Mark Pellegrino, and Breaking Bad‘s Dean Norris, who is all but unrecognizable under a very convincing wig, some thick glasses, and a few prosthetics.

Apparently, Jon Hamm specifically sought out the project of Beirut shortly after his leading stint on AMC’s Mad Men concluded, specifically because he wanted to focus on a role completely unlike Don Draper.

Hamm would later laude this film for its ability to comment on real-world politics in a fruitful and direct way, and for its ability to play into stark realism, without relying on Marvel-style action sequences to save the day. The actor’s interest helped to finally get the long-awaited production off the ground, as the script had been completed and passed around to various producers since 1992.

REVIEW SCORE

If you’re interested in checking out Beirut today, you can stream the film on Amazon Prime Video. Critics and general audiences alike have reviewed the film with heaps of praise, resulting in an 82 percent certified fresh critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.