When A Mighty Heart, the film based on the book by Pearl’s widow, Marianne Pearl, came out, I didn’t go see it. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see that story on the big screen, and I wasn’t sure I needed to see it. After all, I knew how the story turned out.
I should have gone. A Mighty Heart is certainly about the tragedy of Danny Pearl. But, it’s also, and more so, about an unlikely group of people who came together to try and save him, and about not giving in to terror. And, like Apollo 13, Thirteen Days and other films based on actual events, knowing how it turns out doesn’t mean that the suspense is gone.
A Mighty Heart is very much about Marianne (Angelina Jolie) and how she dealt with the horror around her. But it’s also about Danny’s colleagues from the Journal, people in the U.S. embassy, and especially the Pakistani officer, Captain (Irfan Khan), who takes on the case.
The film shows how this group tracked down leads, mapped out those involved, and kept hope that they would find Danny in time. When they don’t, it’s clear it’s a body blow to all of them, not just Marianne.
Jolie is excellent, and so are the rest of the actors. This film will be a bit unusual for American audiences, because except for Jolie, the embassy official played by Will Patton, and two of Danny’s colleagues from the Journal (Denis O’Hare and Gary Wilmes), all of the other leading actors are Indian, Pakistani, Arab, or other nationalities. In addition to Khan, Archie Panjabi is particularly notable as Asra Nomani, an Indian colleague of Danny’s. She and Jolie’s Marianne lean on each other as they work with the large group of men to try and make sense of what’s happened.
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