The Bottom Line
- Moving and powerful
- Accurate in its details of the Pearl case
- Realistic portrayals of all journalist characters
- Fantastic performances
- Great edge-of-your-seat direction and cinematography
- Those unfamiliar with the story may get lost
- Some may find it difficult to keep up with the film's frenetic pace
Description
- Rated R
- Running time: 100 minutes
- Based on Mariane Pearl's book "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of my Husband, Danny Pearl"
- Directed by Michael Winterbottom
- Production team includes Brad Pitt
Guide Review - "A Mighty Heart" (2007)
One of the most convincing scenes in "Heart" is near the beginning, when Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (played by Dan Futterman), in Pakistan with his pregnant wife Mariane (also a journalist; played by Angelina Jolie), visits U.S. diplomatic security agent Randall Bennett (played by Will Patton) to ask whether his upcoming meeting with a shadowy contact is a wise idea. Pearl, we learn, is investigating links to "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, and he's given the advice that most journalists have long believed: If you meet your contact in a public place, things should be OK.
They weren't for Pearl, of course. He disappears into a car, and doesn't show up for dinner that evening. Thus starts the frantic search for the reporter, and a balance of raw emotion and a journalist's characteristic focused drive from Mariane. She and an Indian writers begin by plowing through Pearl's e-mails, charting his contacts and the tangled web of their contacts on a write-wipe board.
Later in the movie, Pearl's editor John Bussey (played by Denis O'Hare) arrives, giving one of the most raw and real journalist portrayals in the film as he vascillates from uncertainty to leadership to reading Mariane's baby-advice book. When the team of journalists sees Pearl's beheading video, it's as real as it gets. (The WSJ said after the film's release that it portrayed the newspaper fairly.)