Hola all. Massawyrm here.

Look, I acknowledge that this is based upon a very true, very tragic event. What happened to Daniel Pearl is something I wouldn't wish upon anyone. But it is incredibly tough to review a film that gains the entirety of its power from the truth of the events contained therein, especially when you have to talk about the events they show you and what they mean to an 'audience.'. It is important to note that the criticism I have for this film are just that – criticism of the presentation of the story as it is intended to entertain, move and enlighten. Because as a film, A Mighty Heart neither entertains, moves, or effectively enlightens.

A Mighty Heart's biggest problem is director Michael Winterbottom's choice to direct this using the very same fly on the wall, documentary style that Paul Greengrass used to place us smack dab in the middle of a hijacking in United 93. While that choice worked for Greengrass, it did so because each and every one of us who walked into that theatre carried with us deep seeded fears, anxieties and emotional scars from that event. There isn't an adult among you who doesn't remember where they were when they first heard the news. So let me ask you this: Where were you when you first heard Daniel Pearl was kidnapped?

And there's the problem. I certainly couldn't tell you where I was. When I first heard the news I probably grumbled about the fact that the biggest story of the day is always pre-empted by any news of someone ignoring the almost sacred neutrality of journalists in dangerous situations. I know when I heard I probably didn't think much of it. And I certainly don't harbor any long lasting emotions on the issue aside from that of polite sorrow. A man I never knew put himself in harms way and something horrible happened to him. It's an awful story, but one to which I have no particular attachment.

And sitting down to watch A Mighty Heart you initially get the impression that this film is setting out to change that fact. To introduce you to a wonderful man and his beautiful wife, only to whisk you away into the terrible circumstances that separated them forever; to put you in their story so you can understand. But it doesn't. Instead the documentary style gives it a very sterile, unremarkable feel. You watch as Daniel Pearl makes his way through his day just as if it were any other. Any other that a Jewish journalist would be setting up a private meeting with a well known radical jihadist.

And that's where this film first began to lose me. It was expecting me to get on board with the terrifying abduction of a man who got into a car full of strangers that hate his people on principle. I was supposed to think Oh, how dare they rather than What the hell was he thinking??? Jihadists??? Had this event not been predicated with about ten minutes of Pearl meeting with several people who all told him the same thing Yeah, if you meet him in public, you SHOULD be okay I might not have suffered such an overriding disconnect. He even remarks Everyone keeps telling me that. Guess who didn't have their meeting in public?

From that point on, if you haven't climbed aboard the emotional express, you won't. The bulk of the remainder of the film is incredibly passive. You watch as people sit around tables on cell phones and laptops, sometimes talking, sometimes crying. Then someone will get a call or e-mail. Everyone gets excited. Then they sit around and wait for another one. This goes on for roughly another hour/hour and a half until the inevitable happens.

And that's pretty much it. Occasionally we cut away to the police running down suspects and complaining about how embarrassing this is for Pakistan. But really most of the film is about cell phones and laptops, not about following the events of tracking an abduction or what was happening to Daniel himself. As a result, you become board and uninvolved, just waiting for the ending that anyone that has heard of Daniel's story knows is going to happen.

The film's one saving grace, and what you will no doubt see quoted from every review, is Angelina Jolie's performance. I can easily say without any hesitation that I am far from her biggest fan and yet I found her positively incredible. This is not only her best performance since Girl, Interrupted, it is far and away superior to that role. She gives a career defining performance that will soften the hearts of her harshest critics. Jolie simply melts into the skin of Mrs. Pearl and becomes entirely unrecognizable. If there is any reason at all to see this, it is to see the transformation the she accomplishes here.

That said, it still wasn't enough to make this movie for me. Angelina will no doubt pick up an Oscar nod for this next year, but Winterbottom and the film won't. I'm normally a fan of Winterbottom's work – but this time it falls pretty flat. I can't recommend this one at all except for the most diehard of Jolie fans and for those who might also carry some emotional resonance for the Daniel Perl story. I walked in rather unfeeling about the facts of the event. And I walked out the same way. And that's something of a failure in my book.

Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.

Massawyrm

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