A Mighty Heart Review

Today I had a chance to see the independent film, ‘A Mighty Heart,’ in which Angelina Jolie portrays Mariane Pearl, wife of slain Wall Street Journal journalist, Daniel Pearl, played by Dan Futterman. Brad Pitt, Angelina’s partner, produced the film in which Daniel’s story is told. To be honest, I was a little apprehensive about seeing this film in a theater, due to the potential gruesomeness and subject matter. I tend to rather rent that sort of film and watch it at home. However, after I saw Jolie’s interview on ‘Larry King Live’ last weekend, I felt pretty good about the film.

The film is set in Karachi, where Pearl was working for the Wall Street Journal, following September 11, and the war in Afghanistan. On June 23, he left their apartment, and sought advice of locals and American officials who thought it was safe for him to take a meeting with a much sought after source, as long as the meeting took place in public. However, plans changed, and instead of taking the meeting in the restaurant, he was kidnapped and held captive. Because of his Jewish faith, he was a target of particular interest to militant Omar Saeed Sheikh, a known Jihadist. The film follows Mariane during five painstaking weeks. She is six months pregnant with the couple’s only child, and she must deal with the kidnapping and then subsequent loss of her husband when he is beheaded, despite various governments’ efforts to find him. Amazingly, Mariane holds no hatred for her husband’s murderers, and wanted the story told because she feels her husband is an ordinary hero – for their son, Adam.

The film is both raw, and honest in its portrayals of situations which took place in 2002. While it is somewhat demanding of the viewer, those who are familiar with the back stories, like myself, have no trouble keeping up with the sometimes quick pace. The flashbacks experienced by Mariane (Jolie) focus on the life she shared with her husband, offering both a somewhat emotional and very human tone to what is a political game of tug-of-war to find Daniel. The major strengths of this film are: it is real, it does not try to make any sort of political statement or render an opinion, and it serves well toward the memory of Daniel. Similarly, Jolie’s portrayal of Mariane is not only well done, but also believable to the point you believe no one else could have done the character/person justice. Those who are more akin to documentary style films, and follow current and world events are likely to be more partial to this film.

Rating: 3 and a half of five stars.
Jolie’s acting is a solid four out of five stars.

Visit the movie’s website, here.