A Mighty Heart (2007) Paramount Vantage
1 hr. 43 mins.
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman, Will Patton, Archie Panjabi, Irfan Khan, Sajid Hasan, Dennis O'Hare
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom
This film is rated: R

Rating: *** stars (out of 4 stars)

British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom ("24 Hour Party People") soulfully helms a compelling terrorist tale that still remains very haunting in recent memory. In A Mighty Heart, Winterbottom recalls the gruesome fate of slain American-Jewish Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl at the unforgiving hands of his corrosive captors. More important, A Mighty Heart is a horrific valentine of sorts for Pearl's widow, French-Cuban journalist Mariane Pearl. Absorbingly touching and terrifying, A Mighty Heart is an intimate film but has the gutsy and reflective ingredients of sorrow, introspection and outrage.

Oscar-winner and notorious globetrotter Angelina Jolie gives an explosive performance as a pained woman cutting through the international red tape in order to reunite with her missing man. A Mighty Heart perhaps is one of Jolie's best performances that may earn her another Academy Award nomination. Jolie portrays the determined Mariane Pearl with abandoned conviction and exudes a strange combination of vulnerability and quiet strength. This is far from the glamorized, butt-kicking action flicks (read: "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" or "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider") that have stained Jolie's current cinematic popcorn resume'.

A Mighty Heart is based upon the revealing memoirs of Mariane Pearl. The riveting story features the exploits of the Pearls, husband-and-wife journalists on assignment in Pakistan in 2002. A pregnant Mariane is quite concerned when she hasn't heard from Daniel after disappearing to do an interview earlier in the day. Understandably, Mariane is questioning Daniel's absence and becomes startled when there's no communication from her hubby. Soon, word gets out that Daniel has been involved in an elaborate foul play and has been deemed an unwilling pawn in the scheme of his calculating kidnappers.

Mariane, with the aide of her close-by associates, launches a search and rescue tactic by contacting the U.S. governmental authorities, Daniel's newspaper/employer and the Pakistani law enforcement. The feverish find-and-seek mission is on full scale as an expectant Mariane tries to keep the pressure on by piecing together contact names of possible terrorist influences, doing media interviews and intercepting cellphone calls--all in an effort to triumphantly ensure that Daniel is not harmed while in endangered captivity.

Thankfully, everyone is in full speed to try and figure out some of the nefarious characters that may have a small hand in the apprehension of the imperiled scriber Pearl. The leading Pakistani police investigator (played with iron-fisted panache by Irfan Khan) is especially devoted to capturing the feisty figureheads that abducted the Western writer. Of course the major revelation is that Daniel might antagonize his holders something fierce--mainly due to his pride as a Jew. According to Mariane, her husband will not deny his heritage even it is hazardous to his health around this particular crowd of tormentors.

Although panicked to death, Mariane tries to maintain her faith that Daniel will come back into her arms. It's a constant race around the clock. Mariane is reassured that her spouse will overcome this horrible nightmare. From her stateside in-laws to the televised image of Secretary of State Colin Powell, the urgent message is that Daniel Pearl's abductors will be caught. Naturally, we know what comes next--the eventual heartbreaking news that will shock Mariane and the disbelieving world. The beheading of Daniel Pearl would become the continued symbol for struggle in the eradication of senseless terrorism in a global society.

Basically, Winterbottom and screenwriter John Orloff are able to convincingly zoom in on the intensity level and atmospheric chaos that persisted in Mariane's protruding psyche. The audience gains a sinister feel for that part of the conflicted world where shady politics and terrorism can be cohesive but that these foreign people--directly or indirectly--are also subjected to the corruption as well. The poor, the young, the old and the innocent--all are in the middle of the unpredictable fray and are as victimized as the visiting Pearls. While we know what's in store for poor Mariane and her unborn child when Daniel is sacrificed as a martyred statistic the film still delivers a titillating sense of surprise and frustration.

Soundly devastating, A Mighty Heart is a low-key therapeutic thriller about the human element of disdain and disillusion. This is another personalized account about the wayward universe in which we live on the sidelines as humanity takes another caustic step into the realm of numbing oblivion.

Frank Ochieng
@ World Voice News (2007)