"A Mighty Heart" (2007) - Movie Review

“United 93” hit me really hard due to raw natural effect on the screen. Paul Greengrass made the viewers sit in along with the passengers, the air traffic employees and the army center. Director Michael Winterbottom’s, “A Mighty Heart”, we sit and curiously wait for some happy news along with Mariane Pearl (Angelina Jolie) and her friends; hunt with the CID of Pakistan, the Captain. In both “United 93” and this movie, the ending is known and is tragic. In January 23rd 2002, Daniel Pearl, The Wall Street Journal’s journalist was kidnapped and murdered February 1st 2002. The movie focuses on his pregnant wife Mariane Pearl and the people who did their best to save the life of Daniel Pearl. Dan Futterman plays Daniel Pearl.

There is no doubt that this movie is emotionally moving and questions the inhumanity in some of the people and also tells the humanity existing in lot of other people. There will be statements claiming the authenticity or the portrayal of the situations and the comments. There will be also accusations of certain depictions and hyped up emotions too. And there will be the mentioning of the fact that while there are numerous kidnapping and killing of innocent people, what is the need for this attention on this particular incident? The film is not about any of those. This is a story wherein even after so much cruelty in this world, there are good people. And to portray the good people this is the movie to be watched.

When there is the life of a human being dragged with no clue, every other thing surrounding us becomes immaterial and also very much material. Politics goes everywhere and it is also thrown right out of the window. The question of integrity and the value system is oscillated. “What if ?” is every one constantly ask themselves. This is a movie with skin and blood in it. There are simple and small things which make it real and in fact those are the moments putting us in the middle of that house among those people. This film does not attempt to justify some of the decisions or indecisions made during that course of time. This is an attempt to bring out those important people who were there with the courageous yet broken Mariane Pearl. Bussey (Denis O’Hare) is concerned about the health of her and discusses it with his colleague Steve (Gary Wilmes). In the next scene, we see a chef is being brought upon from the consulate by Randall Bennett (Will Patton). And they have a nice dinner. This is the moment. Every one knows the uncomfortable comfort out of it. But it is life and it needs to continue to look for the next better day. Similarly the characters present and their small actions and frighten nature are the one which places those emotions carefully and truthfully. The small kid of the maid servant and their family, the security guard outside and their reactions to the busy and tense people are the ones which makes this come out of the movie. It happened and this is how it was and this is how they were horribly and tragically affected.

The casting and performances becomes highly important in a project like this than any other. These are real people and hence the emotions at that point were theirs during the tragedy. Archie Panjabi as Asra Q. Nomani, Denis O’ Hare as Busey, Gary Wilmes as Steve, Will Patton as Randall Benett and finally Irfan Khan as Captain. When Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl is in this unbearable trauma, they need to react to not react. This is the challenge of portraying those brutal moments to screen.

One may ask the necessity of revisiting this tragedy through a movie. The way Daniel Pearl left this should be remembered for fighting the violence in each of us. Some horrible things need to be forgotten as well. True but the struggle to confront those resides in accepting the outcome of it. This emotional turmoil did not happen to Mariane Pearl alone but it happened and till date happening to many people around the world. The struggle is with a wife/husband, a son/daughter, a father/mother, a brother/sister and a friend to understand the loss of their love and humanity should not make them to stop believing in their value system and philosophy of life. When some one perishes brutally, they should be remembered of their good memories. They should be remembered for the good actions and the beliefs of truth they stood for. Or may be even getting the positive factors out of their negative behaviour in uncomfortable situations. A loss makes us realize lot of things. And a loss like this plants the seed of blind vengeance too. And the movie says it should not be. If something needs to be taken from this, then it is the people who played their part and provided the support to Mariane. In them lies humanity as that of the film.