A Mighty Heart Reviews

For already 20 years, I have been following Michael Winterbottom’s work and even though not all his movies have been exactly amazing because the guy is pretty much workaholic making at least one movie every single year, they have all been worth a look. From this very productive output, I think this movie had definitely the highest profile. Indeed, this time, Winterbottom was working with Angelina Jolie, already at the time the biggest female movie star in the world, and it was dealing with a story which was all over the news at the time. Eventually, even though it received some decent reviews, it was apparently a box-office flop but I thought it was actually a really good flick. Indeed, for all the people who doubt that Angelina Jolie has any talent, you should definitely check this movie. Indeed, I thought she was very good here and she probably gave her best performance. Concerning the story itself, I thought it was very interesting and the directing by Michael Winterbottom was, as usual, very competent. To conclude, even though it is nowadays a little bit forgotten, I thought it was a very strong drama and it is definitely worth a look.

I think it is an important film, as well as a great film.

You wonder whether anyone said to Pitt/Jolie at the start, "What's the point of a film about the hunt for a kidnapped journalist, when everyone already knows the outcome?" Indeed, Daniel Pearl's beheading by Jihadists (recorded on video by the kidnappers) hangs heavily over the film. But it still works, because it's a film that tries to answer the question, how does a woman cope? How does she survive something so terrible? To be a pregnant woman, whose husband has disappeared, who has been accused of being a CIA/Mossad agent, to then be murdered so atrociously and so publicly.

What stands out, among the inevitable chaos of the Third World urban setting, is the camaraderie. These various individuals who came together to try to rescue Daniel, to protect Marianne. The tenacious police work.

Being a Michael Winterbottom film, it does not flinch from showing the crushing everyday poverty in Pakistan. The privileged lifestyles of the westerners, with their fine wine, servants and 4x4s. The torture of suspects.

So when the moment comes, and the video camera is unwrapped like a relic, so grimly portentous - it is expected, the heart rending outpouring of grief. Yet, after the journey, it feels necessary to go the final step.

I don't know how Marianne could have brought herself to watch that video. I do believe Daniel was brave at the last, in a way that I could never be, and that is a small act of defiance in a tragedy that is essentially absurd. The reason for his kidnap was supposedly to demand an end to suspects being held at Guantanamo. The film ends with a comment that the suspected murderer is now himself in Guantanamo. The cycle goes on. Marianne and her son Adam must live their lives. But there is never truly any justice.