A Might Heart - Review
A Mighty Heart opens with the back-story of Danny Pearl (Dan Futterman), a journalist abducted in the Middle-East soon after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It is the only time in the film that the viewer has complete power over available information. Shortly after these facts are related by Mariane Pearl (Angelina Jolie), Danny's pregnant wife, the viewer is plunged into the chaotic Pakistani city of Karachi where events quickly spiral out of control. A Mighty Heart is a film about seeking the truth, about knowing the truth, and everything in the story plus the way it has been realised on the screen operates to confuse that search and challenge that knowledge. By the time the film has concluded one may feel they understand what has happened, but the breathless pace of Michael Winterbottom’s film will leave the viewer wondering how much you can really ever know about this world.
The film’s opening act shows Danny’s attempt to get in contact with a prospective interviewee who has information on the infamous shoe-bomber, Richard Reid. We learn that Danny, played with quiet compassion by Dan Futterman, has sourced a middle-man who can set up the meeting. However, every step of Danny’s journey seems to be taking him further from his target. The last phone call we see Danny make is to his wife Mariane, in which he details his plans, then promises to be home that evening. It is important that we see Danny in this way, conversing lovingly with Mariane, not only because it illustrates their romantic union, but because it humanises his profession. As a Western journalist in Pakistan, Danny is in a dangerous line of work, yet he is not a superhero or a justice-fighter. His eventual demise will be all the more poignant because of these domestic conversations. The many flashbacks that pervade the film telling the couple’s back-story help to tenderly illustrate their loving relationship. These flashback scenes—idyllic wedding memories, sweet honeymoon moments, and conversations about their unborn baby’s name—confirm their spirited love affair. The use of collective memories in this manner recalls similar scenes in the 2005 film, The Constant Gardener (Fernando Meirelles). As with the latter film, A Mighty Heart doesn't overdo inherent political themes in either the story or the setting, but focuses instead on the human toll of terrorism and violence.
Eventually Danny disappears, and the focus of the story switches to Mariane. While A Mighty Heart is ostensibly about Danny’s abduction, it quickly becomes apparent that it is really interested in relating with Mariane’s search to find him. When it becomes clear to Mariane that Danny has been kidnapped, she quietly and calmly sets about tracking his whereabouts in a manner belying her probable anxiety. Angelina Jolie’s measured and compassionate performance is crucial to the film’s success. Jolie’s Mariane is a strong, resolute character who refuses to submit to the pressures she's surely enduring. Mariane’s determined will is her message to Danny’s captors; she will not yield because she refuses to be terrorised. Mariane is assisted in her search for answers by the Pakistani police (the CID), the FBI, US security agents, and a fellow journalist and close friend of Danny, Asra (Archie Panjabi). It is Asra who covers a whiteboard with a flow-chart of the connections that may lead to Danny’s retrieval. By the end of the film the whiteboard has become an anarchic spider’s web of broken leads and false dawns. This fractured diagram serves as a visual metaphor for the confusion that characterises the quest to locate the hostage, and also as reflection of the city of Karachi and its back-alleys, dead-ends, and overall disorder.
It is significant that the eventual breakthrough does not come from the whiteboard, nor the forensic analysis of email or phone accounts, but rather from the straightforward interrogation methods and police procedure of the CID. The head of the investigation, Captain (Irrfan Khan), is an old-fashioned policeman whose approach to his job mirrors that of the journalist he is seeking. Captain hunts leads from witnesses, proceeding into dangerous territory to following them up, all the while using guile when interrogating his suspects in order to uncover evidence. All the various strands that had been slowing the investigation represented on Asra’s jumbled whiteboard are streamlined into a tangible focus as Captain discovers who is likely behind the abduction. Winterbottom presents these moments with palpable dynamism, the pace picks up, and understated music helps to propel the narrative along. Those familiar with the story will know that ultimately the investigations were in vain, with gruesome evidence confirming Danny’s death occurring many days earlier. Yet, even with this knowledge, the viewer cannot help but be affected by the urgency of the investigation.
A Mighty Heart is an urgent film. Winterbottom captures the chaos of Karachi with expertise. His guerrilla-filmmaking style in which he shoots off-the-cuff often on location in some of the most tumultuous settings around the globe is perfectly suited to the material of the film (based upon Mariane Pearl’s book - 'A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl'). The director has been in these environs before, first with In this World (2002), and then The Road to Guantanamo (2006). His approach of hand-held camerawork, jumpcuts, location shooting, and improvisation is completely attuned to the naturally hectic life of the Middle-East. While this is a film about the confusion that attended the abduction, it is also about how Mariane persisted single-mindedly in an effort to make sense of the situation. Jolie is wonderful at capturing the strength of her character amid the whirlwind of events that challenge her resolve. Importantly, Winterbottom allows the viewer private moments with Mariane that exhibit the tender heart of this strong woman. Perhaps the most moving scene of the film occurs when Mariane sends an “I love you” text to Danny’s phone despite knowing he has not been answering it for days. It is the kind of gesture that speaks of the pure beauty and compassion of a person who refuses to lose hope even when confronted by this world’s most horrible realities.
Jolie
The film’s opening act shows Danny’s attempt to get in contact with a prospective interviewee who has information on the infamous shoe-bomber, Richard Reid. We learn that Danny, played with quiet compassion by Dan Futterman, has sourced a middle-man who can set up the meeting. However, every step of Danny’s journey seems to be taking him further from his target. The last phone call we see Danny make is to his wife Mariane, in which he details his plans, then promises to be home that evening. It is important that we see Danny in this way, conversing lovingly with Mariane, not only because it illustrates their romantic union, but because it humanises his profession. As a Western journalist in Pakistan, Danny is in a dangerous line of work, yet he is not a superhero or a justice-fighter. His eventual demise will be all the more poignant because of these domestic conversations. The many flashbacks that pervade the film telling the couple’s back-story help to tenderly illustrate their loving relationship. These flashback scenes—idyllic wedding memories, sweet honeymoon moments, and conversations about their unborn baby’s name—confirm their spirited love affair. The use of collective memories in this manner recalls similar scenes in the 2005 film, The Constant Gardener (Fernando Meirelles). As with the latter film, A Mighty Heart doesn't overdo inherent political themes in either the story or the setting, but focuses instead on the human toll of terrorism and violence.
Eventually Danny disappears, and the focus of the story switches to Mariane. While A Mighty Heart is ostensibly about Danny’s abduction, it quickly becomes apparent that it is really interested in relating with Mariane’s search to find him. When it becomes clear to Mariane that Danny has been kidnapped, she quietly and calmly sets about tracking his whereabouts in a manner belying her probable anxiety. Angelina Jolie’s measured and compassionate performance is crucial to the film’s success. Jolie’s Mariane is a strong, resolute character who refuses to submit to the pressures she's surely enduring. Mariane’s determined will is her message to Danny’s captors; she will not yield because she refuses to be terrorised. Mariane is assisted in her search for answers by the Pakistani police (the CID), the FBI, US security agents, and a fellow journalist and close friend of Danny, Asra (Archie Panjabi). It is Asra who covers a whiteboard with a flow-chart of the connections that may lead to Danny’s retrieval. By the end of the film the whiteboard has become an anarchic spider’s web of broken leads and false dawns. This fractured diagram serves as a visual metaphor for the confusion that characterises the quest to locate the hostage, and also as reflection of the city of Karachi and its back-alleys, dead-ends, and overall disorder.
It is significant that the eventual breakthrough does not come from the whiteboard, nor the forensic analysis of email or phone accounts, but rather from the straightforward interrogation methods and police procedure of the CID. The head of the investigation, Captain (Irrfan Khan), is an old-fashioned policeman whose approach to his job mirrors that of the journalist he is seeking. Captain hunts leads from witnesses, proceeding into dangerous territory to following them up, all the while using guile when interrogating his suspects in order to uncover evidence. All the various strands that had been slowing the investigation represented on Asra’s jumbled whiteboard are streamlined into a tangible focus as Captain discovers who is likely behind the abduction. Winterbottom presents these moments with palpable dynamism, the pace picks up, and understated music helps to propel the narrative along. Those familiar with the story will know that ultimately the investigations were in vain, with gruesome evidence confirming Danny’s death occurring many days earlier. Yet, even with this knowledge, the viewer cannot help but be affected by the urgency of the investigation.
A Mighty Heart is an urgent film. Winterbottom captures the chaos of Karachi with expertise. His guerrilla-filmmaking style in which he shoots off-the-cuff often on location in some of the most tumultuous settings around the globe is perfectly suited to the material of the film (based upon Mariane Pearl’s book - 'A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl'). The director has been in these environs before, first with In this World (2002), and then The Road to Guantanamo (2006). His approach of hand-held camerawork, jumpcuts, location shooting, and improvisation is completely attuned to the naturally hectic life of the Middle-East. While this is a film about the confusion that attended the abduction, it is also about how Mariane persisted single-mindedly in an effort to make sense of the situation. Jolie is wonderful at capturing the strength of her character amid the whirlwind of events that challenge her resolve. Importantly, Winterbottom allows the viewer private moments with Mariane that exhibit the tender heart of this strong woman. Perhaps the most moving scene of the film occurs when Mariane sends an “I love you” text to Danny’s phone despite knowing he has not been answering it for days. It is the kind of gesture that speaks of the pure beauty and compassion of a person who refuses to lose hope even when confronted by this world’s most horrible realities.
