A Mighty Heart (2007)

Forgive me, but before we begin I'd like to express a personal note. This film is based on a very well covered story from 2002, and what I am about to say spoils the end of a movie based on a true story. I am sorry for that. I'm not sure when exactly I saw it, but the tape described (but mercifully not shown) of journalist Daniel Pearl's gruesome beheading was shown to me on a friend's computer some months after it had happened. I was 21, and for the first time in my life I saw real, honest-to-God violence of a level that even experienced minds would find nauseating. To say it gave me nightmares for weeks is an understatement; it rattled me down to the bones. For all the talk of violence-as-entertainment that gets done on this site, I would simply like to say that if nothing else, seeing true death, true evil is a totally different realm. If nothing else, it taught me that despite whatever violent videogames, or violent movies I may enjoy and call great, that there is a genuine difference between what is played for entertainment and what is real suffering. I wish I had never seen the tape—I really do. And for what little it's worth, my heart goes out to the widow Pearl and her family. Please have a look at http://www.danielpearl.org/ and see the ongoing work of a man and a family upholding ideals to bring about peace so that such evil may hopefully someday never be known again. Thank you.


Hopefully this review is not too biased, and my apologies if it lacks my usual spark, but to travel back (even if it's only five years) to such an galvanizing moment in my life was personally cathartic in ways maybe others won't experience. As a film, this is a very competently made crime drama with the fat trimmed and the pace brisk. Angelina Jolie is nearly unrecognizable as Mariane Pearl, the wife of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped in Karachi, and her performance is both strong-willed and fittingly vulnerable. It has some issue with it's latter moments; much of the final breakdown is overlong and drawn out. The supporting cast is well picked and honest, though except for the police captain they don't really stand out. As a whole, this is a smartly told story of a heartbreaking tragedy.

8 out of 10.