Beirut (2018)

Caught in the crossfires of civil war, CIA operatives must send a former U.S. diplomat to negotiate for the life of a friend he left behind.

Director:

Brad Anderson

Writer:

Tony Gilroy

Stars:

Jon Hamm, Jay Potter, Khalid Benchagra

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jon Hamm	...	Mason Skiles
Jay Potter	...	Congressman
Khalid Benchagra	...	Nadim (as Khalid Benchegra)
Ania Josse	...	Partygoer #1
Angus John Crisford Pritchard-Gordon	...	Partygoer #2
Yoav Sadian	...	Karim (13 Years Old) (as Yoav Sadian Rosenberg)
Leïla Bekhti	...	Nadia Skiles
Kate Fleetwood	...	Alice Riley
Mark Pellegrino	...	Cal Riley
Abdesselam Bounouacha	...	Partygoer #3 (as Abdesselam Abounouacha)
Colin Stinton	...	Mr. Jones
Mustapha Touki	...	Gunman
Youssef El Hibaqui	...	Gunman (as Youssef El Hibaoui)
Aziz Attougui	...	Gunman
Hichame Ouraqa	...	Abu Rajal (as Hicham Ouraqa)

Storyline

Mason Skiles had a great life as a diplomat in Beirut. He and his wife, Nadia, live in a beautiful house and have been mentoring a thirteen year-old Palestinian boy named Karim. The opening scene is a party that the Stiles are hosting for other dignitaries. Karim is helping out serving the guests. When a CIA friend of Mason, Cal, comes to the party he is interested only in taking Karim in for questioning about an older brother Mason doesn't know about. What happens that night changes Mason's life forever, along several others at the party...

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Plot Keywords:

beirut | arab | middle east | terrorist | terrorism | 

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Taglines:

The Americans want to keep their secrets. The Israelis want to raise the stakes. He only wants to save a life.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, some violence and a brief nude image

Did You Know?

Trivia

Since this film spans the city of Beirut's 1970s heyday as a glamorous tourist destination, as well as its civil war-ravaged incarnation a decade later, production designer Arad Sawat made use of Tangier's richly textured environments to embed the locations with hints of a happier past. "When we constructed the look of the film, we used the background of the '70s as a kind of back layer to the 1982 story," Sawat said. "We looked at signage in the street, and figured out which parts are French, which parts are Arabic, which parts are Western and Middle East together. So what you see is not just some war zone in the Middle East. What we shot for Beirut has a lot more flavor to it."

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Goofs

Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm) warns that the operation may "go sideways." The movie is set in 1982 but this phrase wasn't commonly used until the early 2000's.

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Quotes

Mason Skiles: You're not hallucinating. It's me Mason.

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Connections

Referenced in The Story of 'Beirut' (2018)

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Soundtracks

Hungarian Dance No. 1
(uncredited)
Music by [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005974/=nm0005974]

User Reviews

From Beirut With Love

I quite like John Hamm. The man has this natural charm about him, he just seems like a nice, fun guy to the point that even when he's not great, he's still enjoyable. Beirut is a great example of that because the movie itself is kinda underwhelming but I still enjoyed him in it for the most part. Can't say the same for Pike. I don't know what it is but most of her performances annoy me and this wasn't an exception. That's really the story of Beirut though. There are times when it's good, clever and entertaining and then times when it's just soooo bad and the rest of the time it's just super generic. Nothing is ventured and nothing is really gained.

This is a tough one because I want to call it background noise but that doesn't work because there are things happening and it wouldn't work if you don't pay attention, but it's not really worth giving your attention either so it's stuck in this weird limbo space of only really being suitable for people that just want to watch it for some reason. Definitely not one I'd recommend paying any money on, if you can't at least check it out for free first then don't bother.

Details

Official Sites:

Bleecker Street Media Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English Arabic French

Release Date:

11 April 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

High Wire Act

Filming Locations:

Tangier, Morocco

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,734,497, 15 April 2018

Gross USA:

$5,019,226

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,509,436

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kasbah Films, Radar Pictures, ShivHans Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1