There is some real beauty in here. The depiction of time and love is nigh on impossible not to get sucked in by to the extent that the story emotionally lands even though our main character is quite clearly not human. But it really gets dragged out and there are a lot of painful scenes, characters and decisions to sit through, so much so that the pay off isn't worth it.
Brilliant in spells, but a lot of the middle gets repetitive and bogged down. Great dialogue and great performances, aside from Ray Winstone's accent. Vera Farmiga struggles to hold her own too, but her part is a bit too forced and not given enough weight in the story.
I feel really bad to diss West Beirut, because it's clearly a movie that was made with a lot of heart, and that strikes a chord with plenty of people.
It was surprisingly watchable even though there were no likeable characters and no particularly enthralling storylines. I know the essence of this movie was to display the way in which the Lebanese civil war changed from a great chance to miss school into a dreadful, daily-life-affecting event for these teenagers,…
