In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The initial plot line was interesting, about Jon Hamm as a State Dept leader employing and adopting the brother of a Palestine terrorrist. It had potential, but then it morphed into Mad Men Middle East. Hamm plays an cynical but smooth talking alcoholic haunted by past secrets, with an incredibly high tolerance for booze that can switch from wasted to competent on a dime. He also goes for mystery strolls through terror ridden Beirut neighborhoods. Finally, multi-lingual CIA Peggy olsen is along to be a foil to his self indulgence. Hank from Breaking Bad and Eli from Boardwalk Empire are there too as bad guys. I watched it on a plane, and I'm glad I didn't spend actual money on it.

Tony Gilroy wrote is psychological and character driven thriller and Brad Anderson directed - finding just the right amount of reality with devastating views of the life in Beirut during the ongoing civil war. Aided by a fine cast and superb cinematography by Björn Charpentier the film may be difficult to view because of the content of war, but it is important for al of s to see the ravages of terrorism and war that continues throughout the Middle East.The year is 1972. Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm) had a great life as a diplomat in Beirut. He and his wife, Nadia (Leila Bekhti), live in a beautiful house and have been mentoring a thirteen year-old Palestinian boy named Karim (Yoav Sadian). 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 (Mark Pellegrino), 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: terrorists attack, Nadia is killed, Mason is psychologically crushed and leave Beirut for the US where he divorces himself form diplomacy and becomes an alcoholic small time business negotiator. Jump forward to 1982 and because of an impending civil war the CIA operatives must send former U.S. diplomat Mason Skiles to negotiate for the life of his friend Cal he left behind. Skiles take the assignment reluctantly and discovers the now older Karim (Idir Chender) and his involvement in the war - and the important hostage he holds. The fine cast is rounded b=out by Rosamund Pike, Dean Norris, Colin Stinton, Shea Whigham, and many others. Raw, a bit difficult to follow at times, this film show not only the effects of war on the victims in the countries where the fighting occurs, but also on the soldiers and diplomats who are sent to 'aid' the situation. We need to see films such as this to keep aware of the horrors of war.

First, yes, the filmmakers could have been more considerate and filmed it in Beirut and hired local actors and crew if they wanted to truly pay homage to the city, but is it that despicable or offensive? Probably not. They might have made up for it by including all the clichés that the Lebanese folks like to hear and see, such as "ski in the morning, go to the beach in the afternoon, and party all night", and the girl in the bikini walking next to a veiled woman. And their over-simplified summation of the very complex nature of the conflicts seems to hold some truth and is probably just enough for the short attention span folk, who could only consume brief over-simplified summation. But overall, the film is only slightly entertaining, the story is ok, nothing deep or moving, average suspense and action, but it's interesting how it's mixed up with the tragic events of the city, although most of them is made up.

I read a lot of carping here about "This didn't look like Beirut!" "The Arabic accents were all wrong!" and "It wasn't even shot in Beirut". For all I know the criticisms may be right, but who cares? Give me a break. It's a movie, got that? The film did a good job of setting its story in a city that, by 1980, had been been abraded away by automatic weapon fire and RPGs. The actors were all believable, the dialog, while perhaps too plentiful, served the story well. To set a story in a city and country being battled over by Christians, Hezbollah, the Maronites, Israel, Syria, Palestine and the Druse militia, and probably more, requires some explication! Other reviewers are complaining about the film being "propaganda". Propaganda for what? Urban renewal? Safer housing? Gun rights? Mercedes-Benz taxis? Maybe the non-romance between Mason Skyles and Sandy Crowder is a typical cinematic device to engage audiences, but, well, it worked for me. And it isn't really typical, since she outranks him and the romance gets no farther than "Boy, am I glad to see you!" Anyway, It is a thriller regardless of the accuracy of the accents.