By Daniel Sheth

The story of Daniel Pearl- followed but being slowly forgotten.

A Mighty Heart, opening nationwide on June 22, eternalizes this heartrending story and Mariane Pearl’s memoir by perfectly capturing the tireless search for the famous Wall Street Journal writer who was kidnapped, humiliated and ultimately executed by terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan. While it would have been enjoyable to criticize Brad Pitt for producing a movie that featured his wife, this movie is rated a three (out of three) “Balle-Balle-Balles” in EGO’s trademarked Bhangra style movie rating system.

The cast of characters? The beautiful Angelina Jolie, often watched for her figure and not for her acting prowess, was masterful at playing Mariane Pearl, successfully drawing the heart of the audience and inciting tears in the souls and eyes of viewers. This movie belongs to her. The French viewers as part of the pre-screening audience praised her accent and mannerisms, giving the equivalent of three Balle-Balle-Balles! Dan Futterman, who played Daniel Pearl, was almost flawless, and I say almost because in his few scenes with Angelina he demonstrated that he was one of those who watched her more for her body, as he seemed to experience bouts of nervousness during all those takes. Irfan Khan, the “Captain” of Pakistan’s counter-terrorism unit, was his usual success (but don’t expect Jack Bauer). He painted Pakistani CTU’s effort in a valiant light in the face of a dark illustration of a country harboring fanatical zealots and pointing the finger at everyone but themselves. The biggest surprise comes from Archie Panjabi, who impressively breaks out of her previous reputation as the mere (however hilarious) older sister in Bend It Like Beckham, playing compelling host and caretaker to Mariane Pearl.

Having arranged a meeting with the elusive Sheikh Gilani, Daniel Pearl is warned by Randall Bennett (Will Patton) of the U.S. consulate and the Captain to stick to public places. Daniel calls a taxi to take him to an agreed-upon restaurant and is never heard from again. The film focuses on Mariane’s five-week search to find her husband, who is alternately accused of working for the CIA and Mossad. Headquartered in the home of Daniel’s colleague Asra, Mariane begins an agonizing quest that only ends with the release of a video, “The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl,” shown on TV at the time but wisely withheld from the movie by its superb British director Michael Winterbottom.

While it is boringly branded as the “The Story You Never Heard”, the movie is actually more than just a story, for it subtly takes the audience into the inner workings of a country in South Asia. Navigating through flood-ridden roads, getting through the undemocratic democracy, beating the pre-historic but effective methods of terrorist communication and tolerating the hijacking of others’ home phone lines by the government as there is no care given to neighbors -- speaks to some of the parts of Pakistan we often forget to remember. That credit goes to Winterbottom, who said:

“I don’t think it would have been possible to make A Mighty Heart without filming in Pakistan. The whole point of making the film would be lost. We want the audience to trust that they are seeing an accurate account of what happened.”

Pakistan is a challenging environment for filmmakers, for there is a real fear among Pakistan authorities for the safety of Western people working there. Thank you Michael.

Unfortunately, Winterbottom’s only mistake was the communication of Daniel’s death to Mariane. Upon discovery of his decapitation, Angelina walks to her bedroom, slams the door shut, and wails…and wails…and wails…and wails…and wails yet again to the point of enough already. Viewers can’t appreciate the emotion of her rhinoceros-like cries, and Winterbottom should have ended the scene with the slamming of the door behind her. However, he did brilliantly add some soft humor in other serious moments, such as the identification of the corpse of an Iranian student mistaken for Daniel Pearl and the silly reaction by the WSJ editor responsible for recognizing his body.

What led to the success of this movie? No rehearsals. Filming in all locations proceeded in typical Winterbottom style: operating just a hand-held DV camera. There were no rehearsals, and no master shots or attendant series of close-ups. Most takes ran the full length of a scene, and scenes were shot in sequence. Winterbottom didn't call “action” or tell anyone where the camera would be. The result? We can feel like we were with Mariane instead of Angelina and this Tomb Raider is worth watching.