A Mighty Heart (2007) Movie Information:

A Mighty Heart (2007) Directed by: Michael Winterbottom A Mighty Heart (2007) Written by: Michael Winterbottom, Laurence Coriat A Mighty Heart (2007) Cast: Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman, Sajid Hasan, Aly Khan, Irfan Khan, Denis O'Hare, Archie Panjabi, Will Patton

A Mighty Heart (2007) U.S. Distributor: Paramount Vantage A Mighty Heart (2007) U.K. Distributor: UIP

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A Mighty Heart (2007) Synopsis:

About the kidnapping and murder of her journalist husband Daniel Pearl by Pakistani militants. Also a journalist, Pearl was pregnant at the time. The drama ended as Pearl was murdered by his abductors, suspected to be Muslim terrorists tied to Al Qaeda.

A Mighty Heart (2007) Movie Review:

It is unfortunate that so much of the attention Angelina Jolie has received for "A Mighty Heart" is concerned with her race, for the performance is key to the whole movie, and the most powerful and resonant one that Jolie has given. The problem some people have is that Jolie, a white woman, is playing a mixed-race woman. The criticisms are well-meaning, as it is difficult to imagine the inverse occurring, and the fact that Jolie's skin was slightly darkened for the role has unfortunate social connotations, yet the criticisms feel wrongheaded to me. The notion that a black or mixed-race actress is being denied a part here sounds too much like affirmative action; it is true that black actresses are denied too many roles in Hollywood, and that when they get them their characters are often denied personalities, but this doesn't all fit with "A Mighty Heart," where the mixed-race woman in question chose Jolie for the part, and whose race is never relevant; in fact, the entire discussion distracts not just from the power of Jolie's performance, but also from the issues the movie rises. To blame 'Hollywood' for racism here is to imply that Michael Winterbottom embodies Hollywood, and that the real Mariane Pearl had financial incentives for her choice of Jolie to play her.

Pearl is the French journalist whose husband, Daniel Pearl, was murdered after being taken hostage by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. The movie recounts the events leading up to his death from her point of view. Since the audience knows the story's inevitable outcome, the movie doesn't play on cheap suspense for its impact, but rather concentrates on the pain and courage of Mariane. Daniel is in the early part of the movie, played by Dan Futterman, but we do not follow him after he is abducted.

The movie doesn't concentrate on the terrorists either, nor on the media that pursue Mariane and the investigators at all times, though both are ever-present, always on the periphery but influencing the way the events unfold. Ultimately it is about the human rather than the political effects of terrorism, or rather the way that these two things cannot be entirely seperated. There is tension between those investigating Daniel's disappearance: the local policeforce in Pakistan, the American FBI, and Mariane Pearl herself, who employs her skills as a jouralist to piece everything together as best she can. Throughout, she has incredibly strong composure, breaking down emotionally only a few times, and sending text messages to her husband telling him she loves him, not sure if he will ever get them.

Winterbottom's movie, adapted from Mariane Pearl's memoirs, treads a fine line between being a bleakly tense procedural drama and a distressing insight into the reverberations of modern-day extremists on real people and families; it is held together by Jolie's performance, which is one of the best of the year. Of course, this is just one such story; Mariane herself compared the suffering she had been through with the suffering of the Pakistanis who are victims of terrorism. The movie doesn't condescend or simplify, nor is it appropriated for political ends. It is unsettling and powerful, and, watching it, the word 'Hollywood' never occured to me once.

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A Mighty Heart (2007) review written by: Adam Whyte