Review: A Mighty Heart

A Mighty Heart * * * 1/2

Directed by Michael Winterbottom
Angelia Jolie, Dan Futterman

It is remarkable how much tension director Michael Winterbottom delivers in A Mighty Heart, an economical, 100-minute picture with a foregone conclusion.   Based on the novel by Mariane Pearl, wife of slain American journalist Daniel Pearl, and starring Angelina Jolie in a commanding performance, the film traces the frantic search for the missing American with breakneck speed and docu-style urgency, marching toward its tragic denouement.  And the investigation reveals a tangle of political, religious and personal politics.  

Set in 1992 Karachi, Pakistan, Winterbottom wastes no time with the abduction as Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (Dan Futterman) sets out to conduct a fateful interview with an extremist Islamic leader that will lead to his kidnapping and murder—a fact not discovered until nearly a month later when his beheading was revealed on videotape.  During this span of time, both American and Pakistani teams of law enforcement and journalists swept through the country’s labyrinthine, radical underground terror factions, pursuing each potential culprit from cryptic, out-of-the-woodwork leads. 

Winterbottom fashions this investigation with an echo of Costa Gavras (think Missing) and as a fitting companion piece to Paul Greengrass’ galvanic United 93, shot by his regular cinematographer, Marcel Zyskind, with handheld immediacy, in observant, close-up shots of pregnant Mariane, also a journalist, played by Jolie with a cerebral optimism that keeps the investigation moving and its dangerous implications at arm’s length, even as the odds become increasingly unlikely that Pearl will return. 

The streamlined script, written by John Orloff from Mariane Pearl’s account, sets the majority of the investigation inside the confines of the  Pearl home, transformed into an investigative ground zero as Mariane charts a conspiratorial web of suspects as days tick by, ransom notes and photos emerge and a stateside media frenzy erupts.   

In two minor roles, there standouts who nearly match Jolie’s conviction.  As sensitive friend and fellow journalist Asra Nomani, Archie Punjabi is rock-solid in her scenes with Mariane, although she always seems to be aware that the worst has yet to come.  And on the heels of his equally powerful performance in Mira Nair’s The Namesake, Irfan Khan mixes compassion for Mariane with a hard charging determination to weed out the abductors. 

Jolie bears a striking resemblance to her real-life counterpart, hair in tightly-curled rings and eyes shaded deeply brown.  And while the film was produced by Jolie’s life partner Brad Pitt, the actress was Mariane Pearl’s first choice to play her.  It’s easy to see why, given Jolie’s unflagging maternal and philanthropic globetrotting.   Jolie does her immense justice.  For most of the film, her Mariane Pearl is a model of composure and focus, collecting information bit by bit, coming to a series of unfortunate conclusions.   Even near the picture’s close, as she hosts a dinner party for those involved in finding the truth about Pearl’s demise, she avoids the impulse toward sentiment. 

Yet in the movie’s most powerful yet simple scene, she lets out a caterwaul of grief, howling in agony after finally discovering what really happened.  Winterbottom wisely stepping back and letting the actress do the heavy lifting, collapsing while a still camera silently watches the prolonged release.  It is here that A Mighty Heart, which previously played as an engrossing suspense procedural, becomes a romantic tragedy more about the death of love than the death of a journalist. 

By Lee Shoquist