Angelina Jolie conveys the full emotional range of a woman in a desperate situation in A Mighty Heart, an urgent yet tactful film about a difficult subject.
Angelina Jolie conveys the full emotional range of a woman in a desperate situation in A Mighty Heart, an urgent yet tactful film about a difficult subject.
Angelina Jolie stars as Mariane Pearl, wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, in director Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of Mariane's memoir recounting the abduction and murder of her husband (played in the film by Dan Futterman) by Pakistani militants. It was on January 23, 2002, that Mariane Pearl's life took a grim and unanticipated turn that no one could have seen coming. The South Asia Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearl, was in Pakistan with his pregnant wife,
Mariane, when he set out to conduct one last interview for an upcoming article; the pair were due to fly back home to the U.S. shortly thereafter. By all accounts, it was the same type of interview he had conducted a hundred times before, and though the only concern that Daniel had voiced beforehand was that he might be a bit late for dinner, it would soon become obvious that something had gone horribly awry. Later, in an attempt to rise above the seething vengeance and cycle of violence that the post-9/11 world has fallen into and familiarize her newborn son with the father he will never know, Mariane penned A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl. The remarkable true story behind the murder that shook the entire world, Mariane's deeply personal novel is adapted for the screen by the BAFTA award-winning director of The Road to Guantanamo. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
It is to director Michael Winterbottom's (24 Hour Party People, Welcome to Sarajevo) credit that he can achieve such a powerful film without bludgeoning his audience with the images of the unspeakable violence that were inherent in Pearl's last days.
Angelina Jolie continues to prove her acting is worth more discussion than her personal life. It's not always fun to watch, but it's an important piece of work.
When Mariane finds out about Daniel's death, she lets out a guttural scream; one that rivals Sean Penn's outburst in Mystic River in raw emotional defeat.
I really liked the fact that they kept it as real to life as possible and I believed that this had happened; although on a downside it made the film rather slow at times. Also I found it difficult to keep up with what was happening when there were several similar looking men pacing around and talking in a foreign
language with no subtitles, it was difficult to figure out what was happening. Jolie gave a fantastic performance and I believed her as Mariane. It was heartbreaking to see her pain at finding out about her husbands execution. It did seem a bit strange however that she remained focused and in control of her emotions for the rest of the time after his death. I don't know if that was true of the real Mariane or not, but it is strange.
September 25, 2011
Sophie Burgess
Super Reviewer
More thrilling - and much less weepy - than I expected, and a film in which Angelina Jolie carries out her role incredibly naturally, save for one scene, when the drama's at its highest, where she goes over the top. On the whole, A Mighty Heart was a surprise: an accessible adaptation of a difficult-to-understand true
story that was helped along by decent performances from a group of relative unknowns. Worth seeing once.
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