Beirut

Last night I saw Beirut, starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike.

Mason (Hamm) is an alcoholic former diplomat who previously made a life in Beirut. It's been ten years since he lost his love in a night of gunfire. He returned to America shortly thereafter and has never looked back.

Unfortunately, his country needs him and summons him to return to the "scene of the crime" because his closest colleague/friend has been taken hostage and the kidnappers only want Mason to negotiate. Reluctantly he returns to the horrors he left and thus begins a game of cat and mouse between the Americans (amongst each other) and the terrorists.

Really, it's a pretty straightforward story, with good guys and bad guys and damaged guys who fall somewhere in between. Though Mason and his chauffeur Sandy (Pike) spend a lot of time together, sparks never fly for them, which seems like a missed opportunity for an otherwise one-dimensional plot.

The reason to see this is Hamm, who looks more like Don Draper than his real self, and melts comfortably back into the drunken/angry/smart hero role. He's great.

As for the story, well, if you lived during the 1980s, it will conjure up bad flashbacks of depressing evening news broadcasts showing violence and death that seemed to have no end.

If only we'd come farther since then, this would be easier to stomach.

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