A Mighty Heart : Mighty Injustice done by the Arts

Based on the Book by Mariane Pearl

I have not read the book that inspired this film, but I read a comment on the film by Daniel Pearl's mother.

"...No movie could ever capture exactly what made Danny special--his humor,
his integrity, his love of humanity..."

How true. Capturing all that a person meant to another person in pictures is almost impossible. I feel the first hand account of Daniel Pearl's wife Mariane, must be a lot more personal and close account of life and death of her husband. And also what all this meant to her. If ever this book was to make the movie, it is of the utmost importance that the point of view of hers remain intact. The movie has to be a first person account on all the happenings and what it meant to her.
This is precisely where the movie fails. It is a sequential flow of event more as it happened and less as it was lived by Mariane Pearl.

The Movie Primarily moves from the time when Daniel Pearl went missing to the time he got killed. But it is not about Daniel Pearl, it is about how Mariane felt and lived her life in that period. The core ideologies, the core belief of Daniel Pearl was totally missed. The movie focussed on how the police and secret services investigated his case, failing to save him.


The story is a personal account of a 6 month pregnant wife Mariane, a Journalist who along with her husband who is a journalist too in the post 9-11 times wants to interview Mubarak Ali Gilani, to find a possible link of him with a terrorist Richard Reid. Daniel's courage leads him to go ahead with the case even when people denies him to go and interview them.

He falls in to a trap; Mariane could not reach him; Pakistan intelligence buearau starts investigating; A militant group claims responsibility for kidnapping him considering him to be a CIA spy; Wall street Journal for whom Daniel was working gives a statement that he was not a spy; Gilani claims no involvement in Daniel's Kidnapping; Kidnappers acknowledge that he is not a spy; US denies negotiation; Mariane Pearl appears on CNN to make appeal for his life; 3 men are charged and caught by the police for their involvement; Ahmed Omar Sheikh, a prime suspects confesses his involvement; A video showing Daniel Pearl's Slaughter is shown; His body is cut in to 10 parts and is found near Karachi; The most shocking, confession of Khalid Sheikh, for decapitating Daniel Pearl comes; There is a lot written about this and we will not discuss the events here.

The flow of events is already quite detailed but the director fails to bring this to screen for people who might not know anything of this. The list that Asra and Mariane creates along with the connections within, is just incomprehensible. Only if that could have been clear to viewers the dramatization would have worked. But,assumptions kills this basic simple flow of events.

More than the assumptions it is the confusion. The director Michael Winterbottom it seems was not clear on his view on the movie. As he juggles during the movie from happening from the eyes of Mariane, her remembering her lost husband and the events happening around her, the viewer doesnot get a clear idea of which point of view should he look the movie from. This basic flaw creates a big shallowness in the movie. You just dont relate completely to Mariane. And viewer relating to her was the key for the movie.

Secondly, at times the movie moves in to the scenes of past and it takes some time to understand what is happening. Thirdly, it seems the view of depicting third world countries like India and Pakistan as not so developing ones has rubbed on to the directors here. Both India and Pakistan as they show them looks a world of 70s, the settings are not appropriate.

Camera work, editing (Peter Christelis) , cinematography has some spikes of brilliance in the overall average work. The times when the camera moves along with the characters roughly, the scenes are well shot. Music by Harry Escott and Molly Nyman also did not live up to the expectations that are set from the docu drama movies.

The biggest flaw for the movie comes from its screenplay(John Orloff) which completely misses the spirit of the book written by Mariane Pearl. Had it been about the events the dramatizations would have had a great impact, but showing what goes into the mind of a lady who has lost her husband through shoddy dramatization, was a bad attempt.

Casting (Wendy Brazington) I must say, was very well done, good actors from both India and Pakistan from Television as well as offbeat cinema were very well chosen for roles that they play with Aplomb.

Average direction by Michael Whitterman on an absolutely brilliant theme is supported greatly by the producers.

Angelina Jolie as Mariane pearl looks absolutely believable, which i thought was a great achievement given the charm and glamour of her beauty. She acts well in a badly detailed role. Dan Futterman portrays Daniel Pearl well making you relate to him. Archie Panjabi supports well. But the revelation I am sure for both Indian and American audiences would be Irfaan khan, his act as the Captain, head of CID in Pakistan, is fantastic. All the other characters supported well. The FBI team though looked powerless and out of some will smith starrer thriller movie, did not fit the scene.

The events were unfortunate, but the movie was unforgivable. I would like to read the book by Mariane for what went through her mind. Mariane, Adam (Daniel's Son), you deserved something better.

A great theme, a great story to be told, told in an amateurish way gets not more than 2* from my side. Read the book instead.