A Mighty Heart (2007)

Overall rating from 1 to 100: 50

O Masterpiece (95-100)
O Excellent (75-94)
O Good video rental (60-74)
X Merely OK (50-59)
O Pure mediocrity (30-49)
O Medusa: don't watch (1-29)

Review by Jason Pyles / June 30, 2007

Imagine watching a movie made from someone else’s memories of a traumatic time in her life. That isn’t exactly the premise of “A Mighty Heart,” but that’s what it’s like to watch this movie.

Another peculiar quality of this film is the way it gives viewers that same uncomfortable feeling that you experience when someone tells you something intimately personal that they probably shouldn’t have shared.

My viewing of “A Mighty Heart” reminded me of Ingmar Bergman’s shattering film, “Cries and Whispers” (1972), a movie that is unflinching in the way that it allows us to witness the struggles between three sisters as one of them suffers and dies from cancer. Although “Cries and Whispers” is a good film, it’s one you can never forget but wish you could.

In short, “A Mighty Heart” shows us things that we feel like we probably shouldn’t be seeing — not nudity or violence — but the depths of human emotional suffering. This is portrayed with chilling effectiveness. (In fact, there’s a moment in the movie that will likely earn Angelina Jolie a nomination for Best Actress at the 80th Annual Academy Awards.)

If you keep up with the news, you may remember in 2002 when a Wall Street Journal reporter named Danny Pearl was kidnapped by terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan. (Now, because I aspire to be your favorite, most trusted movie critic, I will not reveal what happened with that kidnapped journalist, in case you didn’t follow the coverage.) But you can safely know this: Whether he lived or died, it’s still very sad to watch his pregnant wife’s suffering and worrying throughout her ordeal.

That’s what this movie is about: “A Mighty Heart” doesn’t follow Danny Pearl’s experience of being kidnapped; in fact, we know little about him during the movie. Instead, “A Mighty Heart” carefully chronicles his wife, Mariane’s (Angelina Jolie) experience of having her husband taken by terrorists. Because of this refreshingly unconventional shift of focus, “A Mighty Heart” is not an action movie, nor is it a suspenseful thriller. It is a heavy drama completely fueled by dialogue and the actors’ delivery of it. The realism of this film is so authentic, it seems as though we’re watching actual documentary footage of the events when they occurred in 2002.

So why did I only give the movie a 50, which ranks at the bottom of “Merely OK”? I gave it a low ranking because the movie will be difficult for most moviegoers to follow. Naturally, its characters are plagued by confusion, which we feel along with them, but all of it is compounded by a barrage of foreign names that are nearly impossible to keep straight.

Also, “A Mighty Heart” is not entertaining (not that it should it be, nor was it meant to be). But most people go to see movies to be entertained. I hate to write this, but I must: “A Mighty Heart” is as dull as it is dreary, despite its fine performances.

Directed by Michael Winterbottom
Angelina Jolie / Dan Futterman / Will Patton
100 min. Drama
MPAA: R (for language)

Copyright 2007.
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