You have to have a mighty heart to watch this movie. Yea it’s tough to watch because director Michael Winterbottom (Wonderland) makes this movie boring and really unwatchable within the first half-hour or so. What could have been a movie of great emotional power is instead a chore for us to watch. Having this based on the true story of Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl, who got brutally murdered by a group of terrorists, is that we know the outcome before the movie even starts and that only makes the movie worse.
“How can you find one man amongst all of these people?” - Mariane Pearl (Angelina Jolie)
That quote expresses Mariane’s frustrations as her husband Daniel Pearl has been kidnapped by a group of terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan. They’re both journalists and after 9/11, in 2002, they traveled to get interviews and stories about a “shoe-bomber.” They’ve been living in Pakistan for a year and a half. All the other American journalists already left for American but not Daniel and his wife. All he wants is just one more interview with a powerful person, Sheikh Gilani. Daniel gets information through email from Sheikh’s supporting people about when and where to meet him. Eventually it turns into a circus. He always asks the question “is it safe?” and the answer is always “if you’re in a public place.” Being a Jew doesn’t help him either and the terrorists think that journalists are CIA agents. When you’re a journalist you have to do what you have to do, even if it means trusting people in the worst part of the world.
We’re never shown how Danny gets kidnapped or any action when he’s being held captive. Instead, it’s all Jolie’s show as she buts on Oscar caliber acting to keep the audience’s attention while the entire movie is all procedurals. Playing this role, Jolie completely morphed and looked more like Jennifer Lopez but let’s thank God that she didn’t act like her. Most of the time we get Jolie just sitting at her table looking through paper’s and writing on a white chalk board because everything is so confusing. Most of all she’s seven months pregnant and she doesn’t want to create any problems for the baby. It’s at the end of the movie where we get the powerful and exhilarating scene of her breaking down and letting everything out but it’s the scenes where she gets interviewed that gets you in the heart. She isn’t going to let anybody terrorize her. Having her baby only makes her stronger as she keeps moving forward.
Jolie’s acting can only carry this movie so far. The middle of A Mighty Heart is down right snooze worthy. To top it off, most of the people doing the talking (Pakistani officers) are so hard to understand.
Shot in a docu-style way makes this movie more authentic and buts you in the middle of all this commotion. Besides Jolie’s acting, what I loved most were the flashback scenes of Mariane and Daniel (only time he is in the movie are in these scenes) having diner, getting married, and cuddling in bed. Though they didn’t work my feelings the way I wanted them too, they still benefited the movie.