User reviews

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 is an intimate film. Basically a love story set in the political wreckage after the attack on the World Trade Center. As such, we don't get much detail about the different factions in Pakistan or who is "good" or "bad." It's the story of a couple who find themselves being used by terrorists and whether it is mere coincidence because they are Westerners or whether more specific points are being made because Daniel Pearl is Jewish aren't really explored, a wide variety of explanations are offered. Instead, as a backdrop to the suspense and the couple's relationship, we get a visual poem of life in Islamabad and Karachi, which I found beautiful, fascinating and more than just a little frightening. These are not cities for people with claustrophobia.

With the story beginning the day of Daniel Pearl's kidnapping, his character is fleshed out only through flashback or what others say about him, as well as the devotion of all who search to rescue him. I doubt few will go to this film without knowing the outcome. I suppose some fans of Ms. Jolie might attend and find themselves unaware of the events portrayed in the movie. So Winterbottom has his work cut out for him since most in the audience know the conclusion.

As Mariane Pearl, Angelina Jolie gives a remarkable, restrained performance. Her face is a mask and emotion is communicated almost exclusively through her eyes. It's the gift of a remarkable talent for the screen. I don't know how anyone could have been better. Others in the cast, too, are notable: Archie Panjabi holds her own with Jolie whenever they're together on the screen. It's a particularly complicated role since she becomes the target of the Pakistani press as the reason for Pearl's abduction, and her guilt, bafflement and frustration give the film added suspense. And Irfan Khan, the pivotal Pakistani investigator—in a role that could have been clichéd—brings an urgency to his character that earned my sympathy for succeeding in what must have been an impossible task. The film opens with Mariane Pearl describing Karachi as the World's second largest city and her husband was trying to meet with one man…how impossible it must be to find a single person in such a large place. That proves prophetic as Irfan Kahn then has to find Daniel Pearl.

The growing alarm of the first night of Pearl's abduction is particularly well done by both the director and actors.

I'm a little shocked by others' comment here that the Pearl's shouldn't have been "doing what they were doing" or because they put themselves in a dangerous situation we should somehow feel less sympathetic. I'm ashamed that such comments could be made in the face of this tragedy.

Though based on a horrifying and tragic event, "A Mighty Heart" is a strangely unmoving film. Director Michael Winterbottom throws plenty of details at us about the investigation into the kidnapping of journalist Daniel Pearl by radical Muslims in Pakistan, and the film plays almost like a documentary, even copping the documentary look with lots of hand-held camera shots and jump-cut editing. But the human story gets buried underneath the complex web of details, and despite a solid performance from Angelina Jolie as Pearl's remarkably stoic wife Mariane, I wasn't much moved by the film.

Winterbottom doesn't display a lot of skill at making the details coherent to his audience, and I'm not sure even now who all of the players were or what role they played. He assumes that everyone will already come to the film knowing the story of Daniel and Mariane Pearl, and while I knew the general outline, I wasn't aware of all the specifics, and this film doesn't help. It recreates the feeling of coming into a T.V. series after having missed the opening episode, and trying to digest material without being able to put it into context.

Grade: B

This is one of the more intelligent and well constructed movies of 2007 thus far. Touching on the human element as it collides with the unpleasant realities of hot-bed issues including politics and religion, the brutality and evil this story depicts is at times difficult to watch.

Difficult to watch because the content is disturbing, which is the intent of the film. We see a very human dimension to the real life characters who are depicted sensitively, making the grotesque outcome all the more horrifying. The story is fair to the innocent parties involved, and honest in rightfully assigning the blame to those responsible for these heinous acts. Dramatically and artistically, this is a superior movie.

Angelina Jolie's portrayal of Mariane Pearl feels sincere, but she appears miscast. Little dimension is brought to her real-life subject, a woman inexorably thrust into the limelight amidst painful circumstances. The film would have been better off with another actress in this challenging role.

Still, the movie is outstanding, and worthy of your time.

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.

"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.

I just saw this film and I really liked. The story is very well told from the point of view of a professional journalist who has to experience with integrity and courage the whole process of losing her husband. I think Angelina Jolie makes AN EXCELLENT JOB. Many times I forgot was the sexy actress, and reminded me several great parts she have achieved in her career, including an Academy award. There is not any importance or relevance that she is a white woman developing an African woman... She is an actress. Until when we are going to play with racial issue. In many countries Hamlet is not from Denmark or Othello is not always a black actor, or Don Giovanni is not an Italian. The directing and several acting in this film are great. And the development of the film showing constantly the misery of this country to understand better their political situation and fanaticism.

It;s very comfortable to enjoy this film and going out in cities where we have so much comforts. I connected with Marianne Pearl, I felt I was with her watching her experience.

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.

A film subject dealing with true events that happened in this existing environment of this world can be too sensitive. And Mr. Winterbourne has indeed taken a brave decision by deciding to make this film and that should be commended. But braveness alone does not matter; the feasibility of making this film should be known. Whether, a story is feasible to be shown as a feature film or as a documentary, is also to be seen. And this story, with all its restrictions just wasn't worth. It was self righteous and self indulgent in the part of Angelina Jolie.

The story sure would have been a great current event thriller about the kidnapping and murdering of Jewish born wall street journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. But the intention of the movie was much more noble. It was a tribute to the fighting spirit of the then pregnant Mariane Pearl. So the focus of the film was on her life at the time of her husband's kidnapping in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, than to the investigation and searching of the kidnapped Daniel pearl. Hence after the kidnapping of Daniel in the beginning of the movie, the story is mainly told in Mariane's affluent bungalow in Karachi. Hence there isn't much scope for a tight grip to the proceedings. The first half drags with only the daily briefings of the investigator to Mariane at her house along with her own flashback memories of her husband. The second half of the movie does have few thrills in its first few reels, as Indian actor Irfan Khan playing the captain of the Pakistani anti-terrorist squad takes over with his squad's chaotic investigation and encounters through the bylines of Karachi. But those moments are few and quiet late due to the time constraints posed by the actual events. Hence the movie mostly depended on the effect the investigation had on Mariane's life and how she handled it, which after a while became a drag and routine for Mariane's character, which after every shocking news would go in the backyard to spell few times the F-word. In any event the movie ends up being mishmash with the director's fruitless efforts of having few thrills in this stiff drama which was a documentation of the actual events following the kidnapping. An investigative thriller focusing on the involvement of the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI in the kidnapping would have been worth.

But what hurts and affects the movie most is the casting of Angelina Jolie as Daniel Pearl's wife Mariane. She proves to be too larger than life for this role which had very few emotions to depict. An unknown face could have saved the movie (but not its business prospects which anyway doomed) and would have brought credibility to the character. Jolie while trying to get under her character's skin ended up stifling her acting prowess which was dying to come out. Jolie was stiff and her face was not expressing much which was important due to lack of dialog's in her role. Jolie's own intention of producing the film and casting herself in the lead must be scrutinized the most, as it seems the script was written with the intentions of pushing her own humanitarian image ( as the drag ending proves it) in the public and film fraternity domain which just proved fatal and wasn't of any good for the movie. As for rest of the cast, they have nothing challenging to perform in the film, except for Irfan Khan who though fails to rescue the film with his half baked character, but is the only one coming out of this film unhurt with his commendable performance.

The whole film overall was made with good intention (except for Miss Jolie's), but without much direction to it and the film ends up with its future doomed like Daniel's life in the entire movie.

Taking away how others may view the Pearle's story and the question of whether or not the family should have been there in the first place, the story was excellent in conveying the emotions felt throughout the whole search of Daniel. Those who are opposed to the purpose of Daniel Pearle being there after 9/11 even with other journalists vacating will only enter and leave the theater wondering if Mariane is trying to give more credit to her husband then what people expect. It's important to walk into this movie with an open mind so that the story will be more real. Major kudos to the creators of this film for bringing a new view on a part of American history that seemed so easily cast aside.

A Mighty Heart is an ironic title for a movie that lacks heart. The responsibility lies at the feet of the director. The film is well acted but it lacks any emotion. It is flat and laborious. Too bad because it is an important and interesting subject with compelling characters. What a huge letdown. There was not enough time spent on illuminating exactly WHO Daniel was and WHO Mariane is. We all know the story from following the news at the time but the director makes no effort to get beyond the surface of these people.

You do get some sense of the what Pakistan was/is like and the turmoil and paranoia that pervades that society. Angelina does a very good job but I think the "buzz" was unwarranted. Noble effort, mediocre result.

For the most part, the movie was adequate. I do agree that it was more of a documentary than anything else. Having lived in the mid-east for years, I have to say that there were some problems with consistency. That has implications concerning the credibility, to be honest. I thought Futterman was very good. Reserved, believable seasoned acting. I thought Jolie's dialect was disgraceful. I didn't buy her acting on any level. To be perfectly honest, I do find Jolie's self-righteousness a bit hard to swallow. The story itself, is a heart breaker. I'm still in disbelief with regards to the method of murder. I was intrigued with the efforts of CID on behalf of Mr. Pearl and the actors who so aptly portrayed them. Overall, it wasn't wonderful but was certainly interesting enough.

Its a great movies based on fact. But I just want to add that there are also dieing a lot of innocent people in Amarica war against terror playing in Iraq, Afghanistan. I guess all the problems can be solved on table dialouge and wars did not gave us anything except destruction. I pray that world may come to peace. Ameen A good movie but one must also make a movie which also show the sorrow of poor innocent people which died in Afghanistan war, drone attacks in Pakistan as well, we must see the both sides of a coin...........after all they are also human and I thought can be educated like all other human beings. Please help to educate these people not to kill them

The movie is brilliant. Michale Winterbottom has done an amazing job to give the real feel to the movie. It is not a glossy painted Hollywood drama. Every character has done justice to their role, specially Angelina Jolie, who was brilliant.

The movie is shot in a way that artfully places the viewer into the chaos of Karachi As it unfolded, I could not shake the impression that this film would be a career-making achievement for Jolie; without apology, it is simultaneously an unabashedly political vehicle that does not fall victim to sloganeering or jingoism, as well as an effective and gripping re-telling of a story that is still fresh in the minds of the audience. I know a lot of people are criticizing the movie.. but the best thing about this movie was it does not points finger on anyone. The movie made me think about the time we are living in. It is a movie about a pain and struggle of women who lost her husband. Just go and watch the movie with an open mind ... we need to stop pointing fingers and just try to become a better person.

A MIGHTY HEART is one of those films whose greatness is its downfall. It is shockingly powerful, realistically filmed and really brings home the torment of a wife who looses her husband, but at the same time the authentic portrayal of the tragedies and mistreatment around the world make it difficult viewing, and it doesn't get close to enjoyable.

Angelina Jolie plays Mariane Pearl, pregnant wife of journalist Daniel Pearl who was tragically murdered while working in Karachi, Pakistan. The film focuses on Mariane's struggle to cope with the difficult and ultimately futile search for Daniel, culminating in his tragic execution. Although a clash of cultures and political beliefs drives the events in this film it manages to avoid preaching any kind of opinion or blaming any type of people, amplifying the singular theme of Mariane's love for her husband and desire to find him.

Pearl is kidnapped after being lured to a false interview with the notorious Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, a suspected terrorist with links to the 'Shoe Bomber'. After Pearl doesn't return home Mariane informs the American and Pakistani authorities, and an investigation ensues. Days later the team receive photos of Daniel shackled with a gun to his head. An email states that he is being kept in inhumane conditions, similar to that of many Pakistani terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, with demands that they be released. The group also claim that Daniel is a CIA agent. Tensions are further exasperated by embarrassed officials denying the involvement of Pakistani nationals, blaming other extremist groups, in order to avoid tarnishing the countries reputation. Following leads the team locate Gilani only to discover he was never to meet Pearl, and that the interview had been a setup. A video is eventually received of Pearls brutal murder, in which his throat is slit and he is beheaded.

As the title suggests Mariane remains incredibly strong throughout the investigation, almost to the detriment of procuring empathy from the audience, as there is no real insight into her turmoil other than the occasional outburst. That said Jolie is terrific in the role. I'm difficult to please when it comes to well known actors/actresses taking on accents that clearly aren't their own, but she carries the French twang believably, using it as a vehicle to assist in building the persona of Mariane Pearl. If anyone doubts Jolie's aptitude for serious acting, they should see this. In spite of this I was still occasionally very aware that I was watching 'a famous actress' in 'a movie', which harms the power of the documentary style filming, and I got the feeling that maybe Jolie is too big for this type of film.

And although A MIGHTY HEART is about Mariane's struggle, not Daniels, he is grossly under-developed. All his scenes portray him as a doe-faced typical 'nice guy', as if the audience are so naive that they will just accept such a one-dimensional character. His conviction to not deny his Jewish roots is his only depth, which while admirable, is delivered with a flaccid demeanour. His minimal on screen time wasn't used to its advantage, resulting in my sympathy with his ordeal being limited to a stranger's basic knowledge of events rather than empathy with a familiar character.

The filming is powerful, with documentary style camera shots and frank, seemingly unscripted conversations taking the audience on the journey to find Pearl, conveying the confused urgency of the investigation. This gripping realism causes a number of the scenes verge on uncomfortable. During a disturbing scene in which a connection to a suspect is hung by his wrists to coax information from him conveys the brutality employed by the authorities in such countries. All the boldness of the American FBI agent who witnesses this is clearly shattered with the uncomfortable expression on his face, and his previous ignorant praise of forceful procedures and typical 'American Bravado' is poignantly deconstructed.

Films like this force me to ask myself the difference between a 'good movie' and a movie I want to watch. The power of A MIGHTY HEART lies in bringing the threat of terrorism uncomfortably close to a western audience (arguably a scare tactic, with actual threat being questionable), and a final thought states that in the same week Pearl lost his life, a number of other Pakistani men did too. This is an important message, encouraging equal worth to be given to the deaths of unknown people in under-developed countries as is given to westerners.

A MIGHTY HEART is a 'good movie' with strong political poignancy, but as far as being one I want to watch, it is more comparable to a harsh documentary with little lightness; your not going to want to watch it again. I'm hesitant to say I didn't like it, but I don't think I enjoyed it.

I was very disappointed after seeing this movie. In theory this could have been a strong, political drama. Instead it became a pointless sequence of rather boring events. The camera is mostly handled in a documentary style. This gives the movie a certain realistic feeling but unfortunately, this does not endorse the story, simply because there is no story, no real plot, no evolution in it. The result is 100 minutes of atmosphere, trying to hide a very weak plot with no layers or subplots. It seems the director never asked himself if watching this film a nice experience. To me it was not.

This film was not able to touch me (the attempt of being emotionally touching was way too obvious), it was not intellectually challenging (the message is simple and mundane), it was never funny and there was no real tension because it was very slow and the film leaves the public absolutely uninformed about the odds for some plot change. Which never comes.

Summarized, this could have been nice as a short movie (30 minutes at max) that shows the story as it is: somewhat tragic, yet uncomplicated. As a viewer, I registered what happened, but the events had no function in the greater whole. They were simply events. Rather irrelevant ones, really. I almost fell asleep and to me it was a waste if time and money.

Sometimes less is more. In this movie, less is just less. You have been warned.

First off, I must say something about Angelina Jolie: she gave an admirable and heartfelt performance in this wonderful film and does NOT in any way deserve all the terrible things people have accused her and the filmmakers of doing, namely being racist and engaging in "blackfacing." Mariane Pearl requested Jolie to portray her, and that is that. This is a heartbreaking film that does not make us pity Mariane Pearl but allows us to admire her for her strength and courage. Although the film brought tears to my eyes, it is not one of those sob stories with the intention of being a tear-jerker. It is not overly brutal either, showing the trauma of the event as experienced by Mariane Pearl without putting the full-blown horror of it on the audience unnecessarily. Great supporting performances also from Archie Panjabi and Irfan Khan.