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"A Mighty heart" is a "realistic" movie, that tells a thru story, based on real events and including real people of real life. The movie is actually an adaption of Mariane Pearl's diary, where she tells the story of her husband, the journalist Daniel Pearl, kidnapped and killed by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. The main question for the director Michael Witterbottom was to find the right representation of the reality he depicts. And the choices he made for the movie are both logical and disturbing.

Mariane Pearl, as her husband, is a journalist, and the first form the movie adopts in order to deal with the complex reality of the world is a journalistic style, with a camera always on the move. It really looks like a war reportage for television, that sticks to the events and to the characters in an "emergency"'s style. But surprisingly, this realistic aesthetic also reminds a famous fiction's show about terrorism : "24". And it's especially striking when it comes to action or interrogations (read torture...) scenes, with a Pakistan's Jack Bauer's style cop. If the goals of the directors are not the same ("24" only wants to be entertaining, "A Mighty Heart wants to be more...), and the depiction of terrorism differs ("24" is a show about fear, "A mighty heart" avoids a fear treatment), it's the same need to show every aspects of a situation that creates this similarities in the urge of the mise en scene.

And this depiction of reality, that gives an objectivity feeling to the movie, is a little bit strange when you come to consider that the movie is firstly an individually and personal point of view on a situation. An between the two opposite points of view (the subjective story of Mariane Pearl, and the objectivity of the "24" reality representation), Witterbottom seems to have some difficulty to choose. It really gives to the movie an annoying ambiguous point of view, where you're unable to really understand the nature of the images you're watching. And that's an important question in this kind of movie.

This ambiguity is quite surprising, for Winterbottom seemed to have chosen his style in his previous movies. For a completely different subject (the musical English scene from the Punk to the Techno in Manchester) in "24 Hours Party People", he clearly made his the Ford's sentence about reality that you find in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" : "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend". And this lack of a strong orientation in "A Mighty Heart" also gives the unpleasant feeling to watch the spectacle of a life more than a testimony about it, and to be an intruder in Mariane Pearl's intimacy, even if the movie claims the contrary.

Telling the truth is generally considered to be the first step on the path to righteousness. It brings redemption to some and relieves the guilt of others. Many people have a hard time accepting the truth when faced with it. That difficulty in dealing is perhaps the main reason some run far away from the truth altogether. Given how troubling facing the truth can be in everyday reality, being subjected to it in celluloid on the big screen is a very hard sell. This is even more relevant when the film in question is based on an event that was played out to the point of emotional exhaustion in the media. (Just ask the producers of UNITED 93.) This is the plight of A MIGHTY HEART, an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's novel of the same name, about her experiences during the search for her kidnapped husband, Daniel Pearl, in the winter of 2002. For director Michael Winterbottom, this is only the beginning though. Assuming he manages to get people to see the film, (casting Angelina Jolie in the role or Marian Pearl certainly doesn't hurt the film's chances), Winterbottom must then get people to forget that they know how it's all going to end.

Winterbottom is too smart to go against the grain. Instead, he uses the audience's prior knowledge of the story to incite an even deeper emotional reaction. He begins by establishing his style. A MIGHTY HEART is not a documentary but rather a fictionalized reenactment of actual events that is shot and edited like a documentary. There are no talking heads but the camera is an active participant in the drama that unfolds. Hand-held movement, jump cuts and an omnipresent observer's point of view lend realism to the film's already tense premise. For those who aren't aware, Jewish-American journalist, Daniel Pearl (played here by CAPOTE scribe, Dan Futterman) was kidnapped in Pakistan in January of 2002. The violent act became an international scandal as the group that claimed responsibility for the crime demanded the liberation of prisoners from American detainee prison, Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba. The American government does not give in to the terrorists' demands. It doesn't end well. The film focuses on the efforts made by Mariane, the Pakistani police, the C.I.A. and the journalistic community throughout the search for Daniel. Knowing Daniel doesn't live through the ordeal and that this search is fruitless may leave the audience without hope but the dedication and fervor with which the case is attacked carries enough hope to inspire an overwhelming sympathy that sinks our hearts when what we know is coming actually comes.

A blustering soundscape and tightly framed street and crowd shots elevate stress levels to unimagined heights. Mariane is alone in a foreign country, searching for the most important person in her life. Knowing the odds are against her, holding on to hope becomes all the more complicated when she is surrounded by strangers, traffic and the sounds of incessant honking, cell phones and random farm animals. The chaos is absolutely inescapable. Yet still, Mariane must remain calm. After all, she is the heart of this operation. If her heart fails, all hope is lost and all efforts will fall apart. Jolie exhibits both outer strength and inner fragility at the same time as Mariane. She is direct and focused in face of this horrific reality, holding it together for Daniel, herself and her unborn child but Jolie's distant eyes and suddenly fidgeted demeanor suggest just how difficult maintaining all this composure truly is. Being a journalist herself, Mariane's most endearing quality is perhaps her ability to remain hopeful in spite of all the horror she has known in her own career without coming across as naïve. Jolie's balancing act upon such a tightly wound rope is truly genuine in both its intention and execution.

Any movie entitled A MIGHTY HEART cannot spend all its time entrenched in fact. After all, there is a delicate, growing love between Daniel and Mariane that is also being held prisoner. This love though cannot be held captive and gives life to hope. Their love comes back to Mariane in flashes throughout her suffering. Insignificant moments like the last time they saw each other take on new meanings, making the loss feel larger while still reminding her what she is fighting to find. The truth behind A MIGHTY HEART is that it takes one to live through something like this and, more importantly, live past it.

This movie gives a good account of the harrowing experience of Mariane Pearl from the moment her husband Danny went missing until he was beheaded. Angelina Jolie's acting is commendable with a well maintained French accent throughout. Dan Futterman bears a striking resemblance to Daniel Pearl. There's no suspense or major climax/anti-climax as we all know what happened to Daniel Pearl and this movie is based on Mariane's memoirs. Not much insight into the investigations performed by the American Intelligence agencies. Overall, it's good movie to get an insight into the unsuccessful hunt for Daniel Pearl on the streets of Karachi.

MIGHTY HEART is an important film with a tremendous performance from Angelina Jolie and a superb cast that joins her on screen in a story that captures the fear of terrorism which we live with today. From the first frame to the final scene, the power of the camera which moves across the streets of Karachi and into the homes of its citizens, creates a pulse that moves the film forward with both excitement, dread and fear. Fear for not only Daniel Pearl's life, but for many victims of the destructive nature of terrorism the world over.

The film is intelligent, suspenseful, and captures the world of technology which we live in today-cell phones, IP addresses, computers and laptops and the internet-which connects us to both good and evil. There is an anti-American underlying theme in the film and through what America has done in both Afghanistan and Iraq, the audience can fathom the hatred felt for America in many parts of the world. Thus, MIGHTY HEART is a film which delivers both a tragic story, but also one for the United States of America as it continues the violent war in Iraq.

Essentially what we have here is a pretty well done, seemingly step by step account of the investigation into the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, which of course ended with his tragic murder. It is not without weaknesses. Primarily, watching close to two hours about an investigation that doesn't seem to be going anywhere and eventually accomplishes nothing gets a bit dry after a while - especially because we know how this is going to end. There comes a point when you just want to fast forward through it to the end. Having said that, the strengths definitely outweigh the weaknesses.

Director Michael Winterbottom does a pretty good job of establishing atmosphere. From the very beginning, the chaotic nature of Karachi sets a foreboding tone to the movie, and, although I sometimes find archival footage in movies to be of little use, in "A Mighty Heart" I thought Winterbottom did a pretty good job of blending the archival stuff (particularly clips of Colin Powell and Pervez Musharaff) into the story. Throughout the movie the viewer wonders how Pearl's murder is going to be portrayed, and, again, kudos to Winterbottom. In fact, and thankfully, the murder isn't portrayed at all. What we see are the reactions of those who see the video for the first time and their reactions to the ghastly scene on the tape is sufficient to establish what happened. There was (to me at least) an interesting scene that lasted only a couple of minutes dealing with a typical "ugly American" female FBI agent, who bursts into the Pearl home, ignores the Pakistani authorities, tries to take charge and orders the room "cleared" because she gets a phone call she wants no one else to hear. She disappears immediately after this scene and was never seen again. I just for some reason found it rather typical of how I would expect U.S. authorities to act in a foreign country, and her portrayal was, of course, balanced by the very sympathetic portrayal of the kindhearted Randall Bennett (Will Randall) - an official from the U.S. Embassy who provides great support to Mariane Pearl.

Angelina Jolie was, I understand, a bit of a controversial choice for the part (largely for ethnic reasons) but she put on an excellent performance as Mariane, hopelessly lost in the situation, pregnant with Daniel's baby and totally dependent on others to try to save her husband. Her reaction to the news of Daniel's death was raw with emotion. Ethnic controversy aside, no one can deny that Jolie was superb in this role. Her performance and Winterbottom's direction make the movie worthwhile. 8/10