A Mighty Heart
Editorial Review:Product Description:Paramount A Mighty HeartAcademy Award(R) winnerAngelina Jolie ("The Good Shepherd") "gives one 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 raceagainst 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 faceof tragedy.System Requirements:Run Time: 108 minutes Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: R UPC: 097363505242
Amazon.com:A Mighty Heart comes at the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl with a de-glamorized intensity: it's not a melodrama about Pearl's kidnapping and killing at the hands of Islamic terrorists, but a near-documentary about the process of trying to find him. Thus the center of the film is not Pearl (Dan Futterman) but his wife Mariane (Angelina Jolie), a cool customer who manages--almost--to maintain her calm throughout the weeks-long ordeal. Director Michael Winterbottom is less overtly political here than in his
Road to Guantanamo, although the reactions of various authorities, from U.S. officials to local Pakistani cops, give the flavor of different attitudes and approaches. Jolie, playing the Dutch-Afro-Cuban Mariane Pearl, does nicely at playing her character's control (others marvel at her sangfroid), yet she remains recognizably human throughout. By no means a star turn, the movie leaves Mariane for long stretches, and other actors shine: Irfan Khan as a detective, Denis O'Hare as Daniel Pearl's
Washington Post editor, and Will Patton as a stymied diplomat. As engrossing as the movie generally is, the point of emphasizing the police-procedural method is sometimes obscure. Oddly enough, by rejecting the usual string-pulling of conventional Hollywood drama,
A Mighty Heart ends up without a strong point of view--as good as its pieces are.
--Robert Horton
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