Michael Winterbottom's "A Mighty Heart" is probably the most important film released so far in 2007. And it will probably be the most controversial this whole year, saddled as it is with political implications that could make it the target of activists on both the left and the right.
Surprisingly enough, the movie is almost politics free. The basic story we all know. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl disappears while trying to tie up one last interview about terrorism while on assignment in Pakistan. From there, his pregnant wife Mariane, their close friends, and various branches of various governments pull out all the stops to find him, but don't get there in time. Pearl is beheaded by his terrorist captors.
While the questions about politics could have dominated this story, it is much more of a police procedural, focusing for the most part on how you track down criminals in a city as crowded as Karachi, Pakistan. And incidentally, the film does a magnificent job of creating a time and place in an Asian city most Americsns know nothing about.
Politics hardly comes into play, although the story does touch on the topic at various places along the way, noting Pearl was a Jew in a country that was a hotbed for Islamic extremism; that there are consequences to US policies around the world, including the operation of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
But the politics virtually fly by in this film.
For its actually the story of Mariane Pearl and how she holds up as she takes a very active role in the search for her husband, but must take it from her home, because she is very pregnant with their first child and can't go out and kick in doors herself.
The real political fireworks here are over the performance of Angelina Jolie. Many of us have long suspected that she is among the best actresses around today, but her talent is too often buried in mindless spectacle films.
Here, Jolie delivers not her standard tough girl performance, a staple of her early career, but a very nuanced portrayal of a woman who has to be strong in order to lead the effort to free her husband. So she holds it in -- literally everything including at one point her urine. That makes her occasional explosions very expected. But the final eruption, when she learns her husband really has been murdered, is one of the most shattering scenes in recent film memory.
Some people, though, won't like this picture because they don't like Jolie, for all kinds of reasons. Some spout nonsense about her not being black, yet playing a woman who is black, even though the real life Mariane Pearl is French, considers herself of multi-ethnic background, and asked Angelina to play her. Others on the right attack Jolie for everything from adopting orphaned kids to visiting war refugee camps, all of which they associate with liberal Hollywood and thus adoption and caring about refugees must be evil.
Hopefully, most people will ignore both sides, for this picture is more about how one stands up in times of crisis than anything else. If this movie was a crisis, Jolie stands up well. She'll probably get a best actress nomination for this role and she deserves it. See the movie.
Surprisingly enough, the movie is almost politics free. The basic story we all know. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl disappears while trying to tie up one last interview about terrorism while on assignment in Pakistan. From there, his pregnant wife Mariane, their close friends, and various branches of various governments pull out all the stops to find him, but don't get there in time. Pearl is beheaded by his terrorist captors.
While the questions about politics could have dominated this story, it is much more of a police procedural, focusing for the most part on how you track down criminals in a city as crowded as Karachi, Pakistan. And incidentally, the film does a magnificent job of creating a time and place in an Asian city most Americsns know nothing about.
Politics hardly comes into play, although the story does touch on the topic at various places along the way, noting Pearl was a Jew in a country that was a hotbed for Islamic extremism; that there are consequences to US policies around the world, including the operation of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
But the politics virtually fly by in this film.
For its actually the story of Mariane Pearl and how she holds up as she takes a very active role in the search for her husband, but must take it from her home, because she is very pregnant with their first child and can't go out and kick in doors herself.
The real political fireworks here are over the performance of Angelina Jolie. Many of us have long suspected that she is among the best actresses around today, but her talent is too often buried in mindless spectacle films.
Here, Jolie delivers not her standard tough girl performance, a staple of her early career, but a very nuanced portrayal of a woman who has to be strong in order to lead the effort to free her husband. So she holds it in -- literally everything including at one point her urine. That makes her occasional explosions very expected. But the final eruption, when she learns her husband really has been murdered, is one of the most shattering scenes in recent film memory.
Some people, though, won't like this picture because they don't like Jolie, for all kinds of reasons. Some spout nonsense about her not being black, yet playing a woman who is black, even though the real life Mariane Pearl is French, considers herself of multi-ethnic background, and asked Angelina to play her. Others on the right attack Jolie for everything from adopting orphaned kids to visiting war refugee camps, all of which they associate with liberal Hollywood and thus adoption and caring about refugees must be evil.
Hopefully, most people will ignore both sides, for this picture is more about how one stands up in times of crisis than anything else. If this movie was a crisis, Jolie stands up well. She'll probably get a best actress nomination for this role and she deserves it. See the movie.