Review of “A Mighty Heart”

We mostly remember the names of Oscar-winning films, don’t we? At least with a little help. Or a peak at IMDb.com. So, too, Academy Award-winning actors. Even supporting actors.

But I’d venture to guess that even the most film-addled of you readers out there will be hard pressed to name one film editor who has carried home the statuette from any awards show.

Which supposition I raise in the context of discussing the new film about the post-9/11 kidnapping, beheading, slicing and dicing in Pakistan of Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Pearl. It’s title is A Mighty Heart.

And a mighty movie it is, told from the perspective of and extrapolated from the memoir by, his French Buddhist wife, Mariane.

What struck me more than anything about the documentary-ish flick was how it moved along. Cleverly. Forcefully. And suspensefully, which is no mean feat given that most everybody in the audience knows the ending from the get go.

Credit Peter Christelis. He’s the film editor. But I guess you figured that out, given my opening. It is a marvelous bit of craft he’s given us. The film is a wonder of visual economy. The story is told. The environment is set. You can almost smell the teeming streets urban Pakistan. The plot unfolds in a manner that has you wondering if this time he will be set free.

The film — taut and tense despite the inevitable outcome — breezes along. One can’t help but get sucked into the maelstrom of competing forces. Pearl’s wife and family. American bureaucrats. Pakistani security agents. Pakistani government.

I should have known. A little post-viewing research reveals that Christelis edited my favorite film from last year, Tristram Shandy - A Cock & Bull Story. Which film, I might add, was, as this dissection of the Pearl situation, directed by Michael Winterbottom. Both are Brits. Both have chops, evident by these two different, but both marvelous, movies.

Much has been made of the presence of tabloid babe Angelina Jolie’s presence in A Mighty Heart. To discuss that further would be to demean the film She is good. Very good. Perhaps award-quality good. And, to answer your next question, looks a lot like the attractive real life Mariane Pearl.

The other subversive element of the movie is how it underscores the mundanity of the terrorist act. This is a way of life for many people with a cross to bear with America. It is matter of fact. That stunning revelation comes through loud and clear. Without getting overly political — this is a movie review after all — the United States best rethink its entire policy regarding global terror. More guns, bullets and barriers ain’t gonna stem the tide.

Let it simply be said that A Mighty Heart works on several levels. As an example of fine film making. As a political reality. As subversive political propaganda. To make us consider whether acts of hatred and terrorism are legitimate fodder for mainstream cinema.

And, in one guy’s opinion, as well edited a movie as has ever been made.

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