BEIRUT – Review

Jon Hamm (foreground) and Rosamund Pike, in BEIRUT. Photo courtesy of Bleeker Street.

Jon Hamm finally gets the leading man role he has long deserved, in the Middle East-set thriller BEIRUT. It should have happened long ago for the former St. Louisan, based on his unforgettable turn in MAD MEN, if nothing else.

Hamm is excellent as Mason Skiles, a one-time U.S diplomat stationed in Lebanon whose life was upended by tragedy but is reluctantly pulled back into service to negotiate the release of his former colleague and best friend Cal Riley (Mark Pellegrino) who is being held hostage by Palestinian terrorists. Hamm’s strong performance is the primary reason to see this thriller, which does not finish as strong as it starts. Still, Hamm is good enough to make the film still worth seeing.

BEIRUT opens in a peaceful, idyllic Beirut in 1972, where skilled diplomat Mason Skiles (Hamm) is working the room of a party he and his wife are hosting. The party is barely underway when his friend Cal (Mark Pellegrino), an embassy staffer and covert CIA operative, arrives with disturbing news that concerns Karim (Yoau Saian Rosenberg), the 13-year-old Lebanese orphan the couple have virtually adopted. Events suddenly take a violent turn and end in tragedy for Skiles.

A decade later, Skiles has left the diplomatic service and is working as a union negotiator, when he is not drinking himself into oblivion. Nonetheless, the CIA arrives to press him into service again, to negotiate the release of his old friend Cal, who has been kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists hoping to trade him for one of their leaders. Skiles’ particular skill set is needed to win Cal’s freedom.

Skiles returns to a very different Beirut, one at war and in rubble. Briefed by embassy official Donald Gaines (Dean Norris) and assigned to work with CIA operative Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike), Skiles has to work through his own demons while trying to save his friend.

Hamm is excellent in this film, and the main reason to see the film. The film is directed by Brad Anderson with a script by writer-producer Tony Gilroy. Gilroy wrote the script for the BOURNE IDENTITY and MICHAEL CLAYTON. Although this is a spy thriller, it feels closer to MICHAEL CLAYTON, with a shadowy world of intrigue, more a John LeCarre spy novel than a Bourne action spy thriller.

Hamm creates a complex character, dealing with a lot of emotional baggage and bad history while applying his skills as a negotiator to the task for which he has been pressed into service. All the emotional connection the audience feels is centered on this character. None of the rest of the cast get the chance to develop the same depth to their characters or get the same resonance with viewers.

Hamm is excellent in this twisty spy thriller, but one wished the film itself was better. BEIRUT is so busy being twisty that it ties itself into knots, Gordian ones. While Hamm delivers the goods, one wishes the film he was in was as good has he is. After a promising start, the thriller seems to lose some steam once it returns to war-torn Lebanon. We see the devastated city and the heartbreaking impact that has on Skiles but while we get a sense of its chaos, there is little on the issues or human drama at play in the rubble. The problem is that BEIRUT raises issues in the political fraught Middle East but then only touches gingerly on them. The Palestinian, Lebanese and Israeli characters are all two-dimensional, something that has caused some offense, and the conflict serves mostly as just backdrop for Skiles’ personal journey.

Which is a shame, since there is much to say about the region, its conflicts and U.S. policy, besides being rich ground for complex, thoughtful political thrillers. There was so much more that could have been said in BEIRUT, but Jon Hamm is a strong enough actor to make the thriller work.

BEIRUT opens Wednesday, April 11, at Plaza Frontenac.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars