“The day after 911, Danny and I flew to Pakistan. He was the South Asia Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal and I was working for French Public Radio,” Mariane Pearl (Angelina Jolie) expresses in the opening of the film. They were two of the thousands of journalists who gathered there to cover the war in Afghanistan. After the war ended many journalists moved on but the two of them stayed to report on nuclear weapons, the Taliban and many other still hot topics in the region. By the end of January of the following year, Mariane was now five months pregnant and the two were ready to go back to the states. Daniel Pearl (Danny Futterman) has one last interview he wants to get so the two fly to Karachi. “One of the largest cities in the world, the main port of entry to and departure from Pakistan. A vast sprawling chaotic city where there are so many people, nobody knows how to count them. How do you find one man amongst all this?” Mariane proclaims early on in the film.
On their last day and night in Karachi, Daniel and his wife Mariane are in their bedroom relaxing. The two hang out and have what will be their last hours together. In that time Daniel names their unborn son Adam. The two later part and go their separate ways. Mariane has one last story to research and write as Daniel proceeds to meet several people leading up to his coveted interview with a religious leader and terrorists Sheikh Gilani. The interview is set to occur in a public place at a restaurant, which Daniel has been ensured will keep him safe. Daniel talks to his wife briefly on the phone while she is shopping for the dinner party later that evening. Daniel states he plans on making it back by 9 PM. The dinner party goes on without Daniel and Mariane is unable to get a hold of him on his cell. After the party wraps up, Mariane starts to get worried and goes to look for answers on his laptop. As Mariane and Daniel’s friend and Wall Street colleague Asra (Archie Panjabi) try to retrace the steps that lead up to the meeting, they quickly get an unease feeling. The cell phones listed on emails for the meeting are all not working and Mariane realizes for the first time what a dangerous man Daniel is heading to meet with.
This is just the beginning of this true nightmare, that follows Mariane and the long journey for clues that lead up to the eventual unhappy ending to journalist Daniel Pearl. A Might Heart is a well made film with a lot of heart and compassion for this true life story
Along with the feature film, there are a few bonus features as well. The bonus material is sadly quite light considering it is all based on a true story that happened only a few years ago. It would have been nice to have participation by Angelina Jolie and even more importantly by Mariane Pearl herself. Still we have a thirty minute featurette entitled “A Journey of Passion, Which is a nice little feature about the real life story and the making of the film. A brief public service announcement from the Pearl Foundation with Christiane Amanpour and a short featurette on the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that was formed to do just that for the press.
A Mighty Heart is a powerful movie regardless if you know the final outcome. It’s a film about hope and the will to fight and believe till the bitter end. Mariane Pearl is an inspiration to woman and humanity in general. Daniel Pearl was an innocent journalist that was used as propaganda and his death was an unnecessary end result. Hopefully this tragedy will never happen again and we can all grow and learn from these events.
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