Mighty Heart, A (2007) [Blu-ray]
Biography | Drama | History

Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie (The Good Shepherd) "gives one of the most commanding and moving performances of her career" (Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper) in this shocking true story based on Mariane Pearl's best-selling memoir. After her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (Dan Futterman, Urbania), is kidnapped by terrorists, Mariane (Jolie) heads a desperate search for clues in a frantic race against time to locate her missing husband. Directed by maverick filmmaker Michael Winterbottom (The Road To Guantanamo), A Mighty Heart is a gripping story of faith, hope and courage in the face of tragedy.

User Comment: Joseph Belanger (joseph.belanger@gmail.com) from Montreal, 23 June 2007 • Telling the truth is generally considered to be the first step on the path to righteousness. It brings redemption to some and relieves the guilt of others. Many people have a hard time accepting the truth when faced with it. That difficulty in dealing is perhaps the main reason some run far away from the truth altogether. Given how troubling facing the truth can be in everyday reality, being subjected to it in celluloid on the big screen is a very hard sell. This is even more relevant when the film in question is based on an event that was played out to the point of emotional exhaustion in the media. (Just ask the producers of UNITED 93.) This is the plight of A MIGHTY HEART, an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's novel of the same name, about her experiences during the search for her kidnapped husband, Daniel Pearl, in the winter of 2002. For director Michael Winterbottom, this is only the beginning though. Assuming he manages to get people to see the film, (casting Angelina Jolie in the role or Marian Pearl certainly doesn't hurt the film's chances), Winterbottom must then get people to forget that they know how it's all going to end.

Winterbottom is [the director] too smart to go against the grain. Instead, he uses the audience's prior knowledge of the story to incite an even deeper emotional reaction. He begins by establishing his style. A MIGHTY HEART is not a documentary but rather a fictionalized reenactment of actual events that is shot and edited like a documentary. There are no talking heads but the camera is an active participant in the drama that unfolds. Hand-held movement, jump cuts and an omnipresent observer's point of view lend realism to the film's already tense premise. For those who aren't aware, Jewish-American journalist, Daniel Pearl (played here by CAPOTE scribe, Dan Futterman) was kidnapped in Pakistan in January of 2002. The violent act became an international scandal as the group that claimed responsibility for the crime demanded the liberation of prisoners from American detainee prison, Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba. The American government does not give in to the terrorists' demands. It doesn't end well. The film focuses on the efforts made by Mariane, the Pakistani police, the C.I.A. and the journalistic community throughout the search for Daniel. Knowing Daniel doesn't live through the ordeal and that this search is fruitless may leave the audience without hope but the dedication and fervor with which the case is attacked carries enough hope to inspire an overwhelming sympathy that sinks our hearts when what we know is coming actually comes.

A blustering soundscape and tightly framed street and crowd shots elevate stress levels to unimagined heights. Mariane is alone in a foreign country, searching for the most important person in her life. Knowing the odds are against her, holding on to hope becomes all the more complicated when she is surrounded by strangers, traffic and the sounds of incessant honking, cell phones and random farm animals. The chaos is absolutely inescapable. Yet still, Mariane must remain calm. After all, she is the heart of this operation. If her heart fails, all hope is lost and all efforts will fall apart. Jolie exhibits both outer strength and inner fragility at the same time as Mariane. She is direct and focused in face of this horrific reality, holding it together for Daniel, herself and her unborn child but Jolie's distant eyes and suddenly fidgeted demeanor suggest just how difficult maintaining all this composure truly is. Being a journalist herself, Mariane's most endearing quality is perhaps her ability to remain hopeful in spite of all the horror she has known in her own career without coming across as naïve. Jolie's balancing act upon such a tightly wound rope is truly genuine in both its intention and execution.

Any movie entitled A MIGHTY HEART cannot spend all its time entrenched in fact. After all, there is a delicate, growing love between Daniel and Mariane that is also being held prisoner. This love though cannot be held captive and gives life to hope. Their love comes back to Mariane in flashes throughout her suffering. Insignificant moments like the last time they saw each other take on new meanings, making the loss feel larger while still reminding her what she is fighting to find. The truth behind A MIGHTY HEART is that it takes one to live through something like this and, more importantly, live past it.

Summary: The Might of Truth.

User Comment: *** This review may contain spoilers *** jaredmobarak from buffalo, ny, usa, 25 June 2007 • The story of Daniel Pearl is a tragic one. I remember following it all on the news until the fateful day of his horrific beheading. Just imagining what his family and friends could have been thinking during the whole ordeal is tough to fathom, but when his wife is there with him in Pakistan, pregnant with his first child, your heart must go out to them. Pearl's widow, Mariane, used her journalistic skills to write a novel on what transpired from his kidnapping to eventual murder. Her words are, I'm sure, haunting and filled with an unbearable amount of love, both lost and strengthened. To have the courage to allow that story be told to the world is amazing. Director Michael Winterbottom is definitely the man to be trusted with such material and he does not let us down here with A Mighty Heart.

Being a story of nonfiction that so many people know, it takes a bit of craft and ingenuity to make it fresh and interesting to the audience. Winterbottom, as a result, shoots the film hand-held and up-close with numerous cut-ins of actual news footage for added realism. The editing of documentary stock with the actors portraying our leads, both in the present and in flashbacks to the past, is expertly handled. There are no missteps visually at all as Winterbottom knows how to evoke emotion with economy. When the men on the search for Pearl finally confront the atrocity, it is in their reactions to the video that makes us understand the brutality. We don't need to be shown the carnage because the faces of these men say it all.

Give credit to Angelina Jolie for coming into this project with dedication and professionalism. Her real life persona is nonexistent as she is fully taken over by Mariane Pearl. Her accent is impeccable, especially watching scenes where emotions take over and yet the accent still never falters. She embodied the strength that allowed Pearl to deal with the days and weeks desperately seeking answers. It all culminates in a heart-wrenching moment of grief and release of all the feelings she refused to let take over until absolutely necessary. I was completely impressed by her performance.

The other actors are fantastic as well. Dan Futterman plays Danny Pearl with integrity and love; he was a fearless man who believed in his job and the search for truth. Irfan Khan follows up his brilliant turn in The Namesake with another solid role as the police captain, and Denis O'Hare, Will Patton, and Archie Panjabi are wonderful as others trying their hardest to get through it all. This is not a vanity project for Jolie as there is a good portion in the middle of the film where she disappears. The movie's supporting cast does an admirable job in never letting it falter without the one character in the middle of it all.

Much like United 93, A Mighty Heart is a story that is tough to experience, but also one needing to be seen. There are few things that I can say went wrong with the film, and although I may never have the necessity to view it again, I'm glad I took the time to sit down with this tale of hope, compassion, and life in the midst of devastating tragedy.

Summary: Don't hold it in…A Mighty Heart.

[CSW] -2.7- The short coming of all historical biographies is that the story line cannot be improved upon very much without introducing gross inaccuracies. No matter how well acted, as this film was, the plot and story line is fixed to reality which rarely is as dramatic as fiction. I know that this movie tried to show the hope, love, dignity, and more than anything else lack of hate by the participants but the subsurface anguish, desperation and impotence is still something that always leaves a sadness that takes away from the great acting. This is worth watching if you even if you already know the story because it also shows some truths that were not readily apparent from the news coverage.
[V3.5-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

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