Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Beirut Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 30, 2018

Beirut's trailer caused an uproar across the Internet for a number of reasons, including the makeup of its cast, the lack of authenticity to its place and time, shooting locations, and so on and so forth. For those who boycotted the movie: there's really not much here to miss. For those who ignored or didn't hear the noise: there's really not much here to see. Director Brad Anderson's (The Call) period Thriller lacks creativity and energy. It plays through predictable plot points and embraces genre trope. It never finds an identity, doesn't play on solid footing, can't find any serious engagement between its story and characters and the audience. The film is a perfectly serviceable time waster with a manufactured grit and edge to it. It's well made, acting is perfectly fine, but it never resonates with any distinguishing characteristics.

American diplomat Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm) has made a life for himself in his assignment in Beirut, Lebanon. He and his wife Nadia (Leïla Bekhti) have taken in and all but adopted a 13-year-old boy named Karim who claims to be without family. When Skiles reeves word that Karim is to be taken for questioning for his brother's alleged role in the Munich bombings, he fights for the boy, but a shootout with a third party ensues. Karim is whisked away and Nadia is killed. A decade passes. Skiles has returned to the U.S. and is working as an arbitrator in the private sector. Still overcome with grief, he has spent his years seeking answers at the bottom of a bottle. He is called back into government duty when he is asked for, by name, to negotiate the release of his friend, Cal Riley (Mark Pellegrino), who is being held in an increasingly dangerous Beirut by a familiar face. Meanwhile, Skiles is tracked by an undercover CIA operative named Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike).

The film certainly tries rather hard to build an intense, sometimes frenzied character and political drama but only feels as if the constant shaky handheld camerawork is trying to draw attention to kinetic energy and masking the essential shortcomings inherent to the straightforward narrative rather than complimenting or enhancing it. The picture moves from one essential plot contrivance to the next, with predictable turns and character arcs largely going as predicted once the players are introduced and the core story is set in motion, as Skiles returns to Beirut a decade after losing his wife. Intrigue is mild, action is relatively brief and not memorably staged, and everything in between feels churned out from a movie mill.

Controversial or not, Beirut does do a decent job of depicting the world in which it takes place, at least insofar as it supports the building narrative and houses the characters that maneuver about in it. Political intrigue is a constant hover over the on-the-ground goings-on as Skiles, fighting tragic loss and attempting to negotiate for his friend's life while dodging bombs and bullets and attempting to sober up, finds himself neck-deep in social unrest and political tugs-of-war, all the while fending off his own demons. His character is the film's brightest beacon, even as he's a rather dark figure and generically constructed at that. Hamm gives it a solid effort, playing both extremes at various points during the movie but usually soldering through all of those components that shape the character as the movie's central driving force. Hamm finds the gravity of the moment in each scene and constructs the character within the movie's larger parameters and the dark and evolving narrative stakes with as much depth as he can muster for a role that is otherwise made of stock components. It's a multifaceted work that uncovers the characters’ depth as a deteriorated man, a man who is failing to cope with loss and ultimately returned to a place that may only amplify his feelings of hopelessness, this time in a climate and on a mission that are certainly not conducive to healing and with another person for whom he cares in grave danger. The supporting cast does little to elevate the picture, though, with even solids like Rosamund Pike and Dean Norris (with hair!) contributing little beyond filling shoes.

Beirut Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Beirut arrives on Blu-ray with a fair 1080p transfer that must contend with the movie's less-than-dazzling visual construction. The image is by-and-large fine, but this is not a visually dynamic film by any stretch of the imagination. The handheld, shaky cam style paired with lower light and drab clothes and backgrounds are not conducive to allowing the 1080p presentation to really exhibit any kind of intensive detail. That said, core textures are nicely presented. Jon Hamm's scruff, Rosamund Pike's skin and makeup, and war-torn environs around the titular city all present with ample sharpness and textural clarity within the film's fairly limited-appeal visual structure and range. The color palette is not particular bold. The image favors dull and decayed urban shades, low light warmth, and not much opportunity for bold, aggressive splashes; an American flag seen flying at film's end is probably the most well saturated spot in the entire movie. Flesh tones often push a bit warm and nighttime black levels are satisfactorily deep. Moderate noise appears in lower-light shots and several digitally created (so it seems) overhead shots of the city present in a much lower resolution and display significant aliasing. Otherwise, the image is free of major distortion at the source or encode level. Beirut is not a looker, but Universal's Blu-ray presents the film about as well as can be expected under the source's constraints.

Beirut Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Beirut's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack reviews much the same as the video presentation. It delivers a satisfactory listen, offering nothing out of the ordinary or above and beyond but arranging all of its essential elements with quality and seamless arrangement, clarity of presentation, and spacing. Music enjoys good fidelity and essential front-side width along with the occasional burst into the backs. Dense din around Beirut streets fills the stage with pleasing presence and immersion, and lighter ambient effects -- beachside in one scene -- are nicely integrated, never prominent but suitably mood-defining and detailed. Gunfire heard near the film's bookends lacks high-yield intensity but spacing is fine. Dialogue propels the movie, and it's presented without issue in terms of clarity, positioning, and prioritization.

Beirut Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Beirut contains two featurettes. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase.

• The Story Behind Beirut (1080p, 2:57): Cast and crew recount the plot and characters. There is also a brief exploration of the place and time with a historian and a discussion of filming locations. Interviews are intercut with clips from the film.
• Sandy Crowder (1080p, 0:51): Rosamund Pike and Jon Hamm briefly discuss the film's lead female character.

Beirut Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Beirut is hardly a poor film. It's just an inconsequential film. It lacks the depth of the genre's finest offerings, playing out with rote characters within a fairly pedestrian narrative frame, despite the various complexities vying for prominence. It's decently acted and photographed but nothing in the film stands out for necessary viewing or in an effort to make it a lasting, essential view in the international espionage/thriller category. Universal's Blu-ray offers fine video and audio, neither of which are robust or memorable but that carry the film's fairly meager and straightforward sights and sounds well enough. Supplements are limited to a pair of very short and inconsequential featurettes. Rent it.