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Mighty Heart, AThere can be no argument: Michael Winterbottom's film of the kidnap and brutal murder of journalist Daniel Pearl is a sensitive, respectful and methodical account that's as far removed from Hollywood sensationalism as possible. Despite the A-list sheen - with Angelina Jolie starring as Pearl's wife Mariane and her real-life partner Brad Pitt acting as producer - this is most certainly a film that bends to Winterbottom's will. Shot with a documentary-like feel, at times it feels as if the cameras were really there as this tragic saga unfolded.
Based on the book 'A Mighty Heart' written by Mariane Pearl, the film sticks closely to her as she begins a fraught - and fruitless - five-week search to find her husband Daniel (played by Capote screenwriter Futterman). Set during the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the Pearls - both journalists - had already covered the US bombings of Afghanistan. Now stationed in Pakistan, with Mariane pregnant, they're readying themselves to leave Karachi when Daniel decides to follow up one more story, about failed shoe bomber Richard Reid.
On 23 January 2002, a date that will forever be ingrained in Mariane's mind, Daniel got in a cab, never to return. The main suspect is Islamic militant Omar Saeed Sheikh (Khan), who has a reputation for kidnapping foreigners. But Winterbottom is not interested in solving the crime, just as he has no desire to show Daniel in captivity (particularly given that there is next-to-no information about how he was treated). Rather, this is an attempt to retrace events step by step from Mariane's perspective as she faces the trauma of losing her husband.
As the film shows, she is not alone - with several allies including Daniel's colleague Asra Nomani (Panjabi), a local cop known as the Captain (Kahn) and an American diplomatic security agent (Patton) on her side. Yet uncovering the identity of Daniel's kidnappers proves a labyrinthine task - symbolised by the complex web of names written by Mariane on a white board, as she attempts to figure out who is connected to whom. It's only as this list grows, and as Mariane's plunged deeper into the terrorists' world, that you fully appreciate how impossible this search was.
This image of the white-board web also goes some way towards showing how difficult a task Winterbottom faced in realising this story. Certainly, the docu-drama experience he gained on both In This World (2002), which also began in Pakistan, and The Road To Guantanamo (2006), helped enormously; Mighty Heart couldn't have been made without these two predecessors. Yet even he struggles to turn this wealth of detail into a narrative that sustains audience attention across a feature-length film.
That aside, the collaboration with Jolie is impressive; after so many lame Hollywood films she is back on scintillating form as Mariane. Complete with wig, brown contacts and a tricky accent (Mariane hails from France with Dutch and Afro-Cuban roots), the actress's dignified performance is her best work since her Oscar-winning turn in Girl, Interrupted. She is surrounded by some fine supporting actors, in particular Irfan Kahn, but it's Jolie you'll remember: the scene when she is finally told of Daniel's death is the most harrowing moment in cinema this year.
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