A Mighty Heart Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Didn't watch

I couldn't rate this as I turned it off when I realised what the content was. I don't watch films about the atrocities of war. I only got it cos Angelina was in it. Don't let me put you off though. Just not for me.

Tense true story of kidnapped reporter

Angelina Jolie shines as the journalist wife of reporter Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped in February 2002 by Islamic extremists in Karachi, Pakistan.

The pulsating tragedy unfolds as Pearl follows up leads and contacts to meet a high ranking Islamist leader.

His failure to return brings in the Karachi Police as well as CIA & FBI operatives who spearhead the search amid personality clashes and tense standoffs.

Throughout, the tension is racheted up by Michael Winterbottom's superb, controlled direction, keeping the camerwork close up and switching from scenes in the Pearl household (being used to co-ordinate operations) and activity in the streets of Karachi, flitting between Daniel Pearl's movements and the police's violent and uncompromising investigation.

Jolie's performance is eniterly believeable as Pearl's distraught wife through which all the other performances filter. Her initial frustration and disillusion with the handling of the police investigation gradually loosens as she witnesses their intensity and commitment, resulting in the development of a deep respect for the helpless police chief in the wake of the task he faces.

An intense, nailbiting drama, all the more powerful for it being a depiction of actual recent events.