Movie Review for “A Mighty Heart”
Synopsis: After her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped by terrorists, Mariane heads up a desperate search for clues in a frantic race against time to locate her missing husband.
Rating: R for language
Run Time: 108 Min.
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Dvd Extra’s: Journey of Passion: The Making of A Mighty Heart, Public Service Announcement, Committee to Protect Journalists.
Nudity Factor: The movie contains a birthing scene that some might think should be listed here.
Of Note: Brad Pitt became inspired to capture Pearl’s memoir on screen when he saw her interview on CNN while the search for her husband was going on
Recommendations:
Trailer:
I remember the events that take place in this movie. I remember the news talking about it, but I didn’t follow it very close. The movie is about Daniel Pearl a reporter that is covering events in the Middle East. When everyone else has left, he stays behind with his wife, Mariane. He believes he still has stories to tell. Really, though, this story is about Mariane and what she does when her husband is kidnapped. The bulk of the story is what takes place between the kidnapping of Daniel Perl and how that story concludes. The parts that we know is the side the Mariane can tell and recorded in her book of the same name. I appreciate getting a better understanding of the events, to see it play out, and to understand what his family and friends faced.
Overall, knowing how this story ends does make the attempts that it might turn out different seem a bit hollow. I get that if the movie was nothing but dark, then it would be hard to watch as well. I am also sure that many of the people involved also did have hope that things would turn out different. It is a tragic story that shows how quickly things can turn in this hostile environment. Despite this, seeing how this all went down does have some value and does provide a lot of insight into what it is like to be a journalist in a hostile environment.