Beirut

Mason Skiles was an American diplomat posted to Beirut in the seventies; he lost his wife during a reception at his own house and left the country. Ten years later he is called back while the city is in the middle of a war. The reason is simple: only he can conduct the negotiation to get a former colleague released, because the other side has asked for him. Brad Anderson directed from a screenplay by Tony Gilroy. Jon Hamm stars. The script is the most interesting thing about it. Gilroy wrote it in 1991 and it sat unmade for years. Two of the producers, Mike Weber and Ted Field, pulled it out of a drawer and came in on the condition that it went to Jon Hamm and Brad Anderson. Gilroy spent three months revising it. It was not shot in Beirut. Filming took place in Rhode Island and in Tangier, Morocco; Anderson decided what he wanted after seeing Tangier on a preliminary scout. The heaviest criticism is tied to that geography: how Beirut is drawn, and the absence of Lebanese characters with agency of their own in the story. Who it is for: viewers who like eighties political thrillers and espionage built on negotiation. Who it is not for: anyone uneasy with films that look at the region from outside. The story runs from beginning to end through an American diplomat's eyes.