In the rather slender, if also well-acted and staged, period espionage thriller “Beirut,” Jon Hamm is Mason Skiles, a dapper, cosmopolitan American diplomat, hosting a party at his fabulous digs in Beirut in 1972 when his home is invaded by terrorists. They kidnap Karim, a 13-year-old refugee boy Mason and his wife, Nadia (Leila Bekhti), have taken in. In the ensuing shootout, Nadia is killed when Mason’s friend and government operative Cal Riley (Mark Pellegrino) shoots a terrorist.
In the 10 years that follow, Mason undergoes the sort of personal descent into alcoholism and despair we have seen in the novels of Graham Greene. Then, Mason is called out of obscurity as a Boston union contract lawyer, where he regularly heads to Foley’s in the afternoons, and finds the government summoning him to negotiate a hostage exchange back in Beirut, where years of strife and civil war have turned what was once a Westernized haven, where tolerance among Jews, Muslims and Christians was the norm, into a city of bombed-out ruins, with Israel itching to invade and wipe out the Palestinians who have carved out a stronghold. Is this Mason’s shot at Greene-style redemption? Or will it be the end of him?
Written by Tony Gilroy (of the Jason Bourne films) and directed by New England’s Brad Anderson (TV’s “Fringe”), “Beirut” is sort of the anti-“Bourne” film about the world of international spooks. Although Mason is surrounded by men with guns and one very attractive “skirt” named Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike) in government employ, he almost never even touches a gun and certainly never knocks anyone out with his amazing martial arts skills.
“Beirut” is a film about the high-stakes chess game that the espionage game often is, complete with ferreting out someone’s true motives and trying to stay a step ahead of a bullet. As it turns out, Mason’s estranged friend Cal has been taken hostage. In exchange, the kidnappers, a terrorist splinter group in Beirut, want Karim’s older brother Raffik (Mohamed Attougui) released by the Israelis. But the cagey Israelis deny having Tel Aviv bus bomber Raffik in custody.
The film, which was shot in Morocco, reportedly features no Lebanese actors and for the most part trades in the usual white-hero tropes of Western stories set in the Middle East. After the flop “7 Days in Entebbe,” you’d think Pike’s luck would improve. Hamm is good, but the material isn’t strong enough to make “Beirut” a major showcase for him. In the supporting cast, Shea Whigham (TV’s “Fargo”), as he frequently does, makes a strong impression in a not quite important role.
(“Beirut” contains violence, profanity and a nude image.)
