Beirut – ****

Beirut (Brad Anderson, 2018)

Some Foreign Rights – Political Thriller

Beirut, the story goes, took some 27 years to go from a script by Tony Gilroy (of Bourne movie fame) to a feature film. To get to that point, the film was financed by US indie distributor Bleecker Street (and some partners) and sales company Good Universe also sold off some international rights to Netflix, including those for Latin America and parts of Europe, amongst others.

The exact timing of this sale could not be found, but it would be interesting to know if Netflix knew exactly what they were getting with this film (which would demonstrate good taste) or if they saw its potential earlier on (which would show great development instincts). In either case, this is one of the stronger original films you’ll find on the service and one of the few from the espionage drama, one I happen to be very fond of. For whatever reason, globetrotting spies have only featured in Netflix comedies (e.g. that Kevin James film) or its TV series.

The movie itself tells the story of an ex-spy (Jon Hamm) brought back for one last job (yep that old chestnut), that being to use his skills as a professional negotiator to free a CIA agent taken hostage by a terrorist group. Beirut does everything you ask of a good spy film. It uses exotic foreign locations well (with Morocco standing in for the title city), photographing them beautifully but also giving them a gritty quality that simultaneously evokes the period settings as well as the dangerous, unglamorous reality of espionage work. The plot is also twisty and cynical, showing the vanity and personal agendas of all involved often take precedence over official goals. As such, the film earns the comparison to John Le Carré that many critics made. And most importantly, the twists work and we believe in the character redemption arc that brings Mason (Hamm) out of his alcoholic stupor to save the day and exorcise his personal demons. Along the way, the film also brings a bit of novelty to the genre by emphasizing negotiation as the particular skill necessary for the plot, instead of the usual array of lethal capabilities.

The film also features a great cast giving strong performances. Rosamund Pike gives an effective, someone minimalist performance and Shea Wigham and Dean Norris make for interesting villains that could have popped out of one of Gilroy’s Bourne scripts. The main attraction though is Jon Hamm and his performance is, for me, one of the few flawed aspects of the film. It is not that his turn as Mason Skiles doesn’t work, it’s just that it was too similar to Hamm’s iconic performance as Don Draper. I was distracted several times by thinking that I was seeing an unaired episode of Mad Men where Sterling Cooper sent Don to close a deal on a big Middle Eastern account. All the qualities that define Skiles are Draper’s: his is scarily good at his job and about a million times more confident and articulate than you, but he is also riddled with self-doubt and regret, feelings he expresses through heavy drinking, drinking which in turn sends him into self-destructive spirals. He also wears vintage suits and slicks his hair, physically resembling Don.

This was for me a surmountable challenge for the film and I found it on the whole to be a fun and engaging film with a decently surprising ending and some political bite as well.

 

Netflix Tendencies:

Netflix Stars: Mad Men is one of Netflix’s most perennially popular licensed works and fans will surely be tagged with this film. Dean Norris may be unrecognizable here from his Breaking Bad days, but given the popularity of that series on Netflix, I am sure some viewers will be steered to this film because of his casting.