I like this review of A Mighty Heart I found on Flixster.
153 days agoEric Fuerst
"A Mighty Heart" tells the story of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped in Pakistan and beheaded on camera in early 2002. His wife, Mariane Pearl, wrote a book following the death, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Deat... (read more) "A Mighty Heart" tells the story of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped in Pakistan and beheaded on camera in early 2002. His wife, Mariane Pearl, wrote a book following the death, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Danny Pearl", which is the source material for the film. Because we're following Mariane's struggle, Daniel's final days remain a mystery. It's a great decision of director Michael Winterbottom, too, as i'm not sure showing those moments would make the audience feel any more secure. We know how the film is going to end, and it makes us sick throughout the entirety of it. The writer, director, and actors all treat the story with a great deal of respect, however it's still material that's hard to watch. However, I think that the film, besides being commemorative of a horrible tragedy, does it's best to remain hopeful in showcasing the heroic efforts of a loving wife searching for her husband.
The film follows Mariane Pearl (Angelina Jolie), who waits patiently for the rescue of her husband. For being in such a grim situation, she remains remarkably composed. It's not until the key moment of the film, which was criticized for being "Oscar bait", that Pearl finally breaks. In Mariane's book, she paints this moment vividly: "I can feel that I'm screaming, but the sound that rips up out of me is alien, as if everything is coming out of me". It's not until you read that quote that you appreciate what Jolie did. Although the film is rather uninvolving, that payoff is as emotionally draining as you can get. It's raw, gritty, and wrenching - the culmination of over an hour's worth of grief. It's said often: people forget Jolie's talents as an actress because of her tabloid fame. While she's not always involved with the best material, her screen presence is never anything short of intense.
Daniel is played by Dan Futterman, who was the screenwriter for the brilliant "Capote". His part here is rather minimal, but effective. We see Daniel now and then in photographs and flashbacks, but thankfully Winterbottom never tries to recreate Pearl's fate on screen. The marriage between Daniel and Marianne does seem rather idealized on the surface, but when you consider the amount of passion Marianne displayed in the investigation and her subsequent book, it's not hard to imagine that they did get along that well. I wasn't too fond of the flashbacks in the film, however, as these scenes didn't make me feel the connection between the couple any better than Jolie's performance did. Jolie's showcase of determination and hope should've been more than enough to illustrate the love between Daniel and Marianne.
We're introduced to a lot of people on the case throughout the film, and the web of suspects does grow rather large. Winterbottom apparently knows this darn well, so Marianne frequently attends to a whiteboard in order to help us sort out everything. It's a simple device, but it makes a world of difference in trying to follow along with the story. Of the supporting cast, perhaps the character the audience will connect to most is "Captain" (Irrfan Khan, from "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Namesake"), Pakistan's head of counter-terrorism. I suspect the dramatic material might have been more involving if told from his perspective, however it may have underplayed Mariane's remarkable story.
The problem with "A Mighty Heart" is the procedural narrative that forgets to examine the inner workings of these characters. It's like a lot of these cop drama/thrillers - there's a suspect, they go after him, there's another, and they go after him. We already know how the story is going to end, so there's already a handicap that's going to suspend the tension for audience members, but the major problem is that we're kept emotionally distant in the process of getting there. The film comes off as rather cold and almost tedious, but thankfully Jolie (as well as Khan and Futterman) lend a hand in making things more interesting. Jolie, in particular, plays a Mariane that's incredibly inspirational. As an investigative drama, this really didn't work, but as the tale of a devoted wife, it achieves some mild success.
Source: Facebook Flixster
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