A movie with tons of moving parts that manages to keep them all going without issue.... mostly. We can get it out of the way now that I have exactly zero knowledge of the Lebanese Civil War (not even sure I could find Lebanon on a map with the countries labeled), so I have no idea how accurate the background of this movie is. Luckily for me, the central story is made up. This era sounds ripe for stories like this, with all the factions warring both very visibly and incredibly deep and hidden behind the scenes; no one here trusts anyone, even the people on their own side. Beirut is very exciting and has all the politicking and thrills I wanted going in. As is often my problem, there are so many characters and here you add it that all of these different counties and factions that have different shakey alliances and wildly different (and often unclear) goals. There is a short little video on the physical release that compares Beirut to a chess game, which makes sense in terms of the narrative, but it's more complicated than that. Imagine an eight player chess game where each person has different kinds of pieces with different movement abilities and each player has goals beyond gaining a checkmate. There is no fucking way I'm playing that game; it's way too complicated and there probably isn't going to be a winner so much as a smattering of mutually assured destruction. Beirut has so much going on and doesn't spend time trying to explain it beyond "Everyone here is just waiting for their next opportunity to stab someone in the back as revenge for being stabbed in the back". Do I want a three hour movie where I get told all about each group? Do I want a thirty minute series of scenes where all that happens is John Hamm being briefed on the Israeli government's war strategies and the major battle that happened last week? Hell no, but it would be nice to feel like I had a foothold for more than fifteen minutes. The ending is especially confusing and Wikipedia's plot summary doesn't even mention the part I'm most confused about. I can't call the story messy, because it's laid out the best it can be with the run time it has, but I'll call it complicated. I was able to enjoy it without a degree in Middle Eastern politics, but I feel like I'm missing at least a third of the scope. All the acting is great, but Rosamund's American accent has a weird cadence. She's pronouncing everything perfectly, but she sounds like the robot that announces when your train is leaving.
A movie with tons of moving parts that manages to keep them all going without issue.... mostly. We can get it out of the way now that I have exactly zero knowledge of the Lebanese Civil War (not even sure I could find Lebanon on a map with the countries labeled), so I have no idea how accurate the background of this movie is. Luckily for me, the central story is made up. This era sounds ripe for stories like this, with all the factions warring both very visibly and incredibly deep and hidden behind the scenes; no one here trusts anyone, even the people on their own side. Beirut is very exciting and has all the politicking and thrills I wanted going in. As is often my problem, there are so many characters and here you add it that all of these different counties and factions that have different shakey alliances and wildly different (and often unclear) goals. There is a short little video on the physical release that compares Beirut to a chess game, which makes sense in terms of the narrative, but it's more complicated than that. Imagine an eight player chess game where each person has different kinds of pieces with different movement abilities and each player has goals beyond gaining a checkmate. There is no fucking way I'm playing that game; it's way too complicated and there probably isn't going to be a winner so much as a smattering of mutually assured destruction. Beirut has so much going on and doesn't spend time trying to explain it beyond "Everyone here is just waiting for their next opportunity to stab someone in the back as revenge for being stabbed in the back". Do I want a three hour movie where I get told all about each group? Do I want a thirty minute series of scenes where all that happens is John Hamm being briefed on the Israeli government's war strategies and the major battle that happened last week? Hell no, but it would be nice to feel like I had a foothold for more than fifteen minutes. The ending is especially confusing and Wikipedia's plot summary doesn't even mention the part I'm most confused about. I can't call the story messy, because it's laid out the best it can be with the run time it has, but I'll call it complicated. I was able to enjoy it without a degree in Middle Eastern politics, but I feel like I'm missing at least a third of the scope. All the acting is great, but Rosamund's American accent has a weird cadence. She's pronouncing everything perfectly, but she sounds like the robot that announces when your train is leaving.
