Movie Review: A Mighty Heart

A Mighty Heart is supposed to be a "triumph of the human spirit" docudrama, but it shows no triumph and lacks human spirit. Theoretically, one admires Marianne Pearl, the widow of Daniel Pearl, for not allowing hatred to consume her, post his death. However, the film fails to evoke any real emotional connection.

Based on Marianne Pearl's book "A Mighty Heart", the movie is directed by Michael Winterbottom and written by John Orloff and begins on the morning of 23 January 2002. It’s post 9/11, the Talibans are increasingly losing ground. Amid such mounting tension Daniel Pearl (Dan Futterman) comes to Karachi, following the trail of the infamous shoe bomber’s story. On 23^rd evening Pearl leaves to meet a source never to return, though we get to see him in flashbacks as the movie progresses.

The movie takes off from here and is mostly about a team’s quest to locate the missing journalist. And leading the search is the pregnant Marianne, an investigative journalist herself. Other members include a Pakistani anti-terrorist-squad member called Captain (Irrfan Khan) and the leader of US State Department personnel Randall Bennett (Will Patton). Together, they set up a makeshift headquarter in the home of Pearl's friend Asra (Archie Panjabi), who also happens to be a Wall Street Journal correspondent.

For the most part, the film follows the police procedural, which tends to drag and become boring, while you have Marianne connecting the dots of various suspects through circles and arrows on a white board. But even as Captain's men capture suspects, we already know that efforts are futile as Daniel Pearl will soon be murdered and a video of his decapitation would make the Internet rounds.

The film consists of a convincing and fairly unknown cast when compared to the celeb stature of Angelina Jolie. Dan Futterman plays the down-to-earth Daniel Pearl, and adds some emotional texture to the film. Angelina Jolie as Marianne is raw and edgy, pulls of the French accent with relative ease, and may bag the next Oscar nomination. Irrfan Khan, puts in yet another brilliant performance as the passionate but powerless Pakistani police chief.

Director Winterbottom's career is known to alternate between documentaries and features. But in this film, he’s unable to culminate the strengths of both disciplines, and hence it’s little surprise that the film comes across as being devoid of emotion; he just states facts, and does not go into the why, where, and how of it all.

If anything, this film shows Marianne’s resilience and fortitude in the face of overwhelming adversity.