Monday, October 29, 2007

Movie Review Monday

Movie Review #11
A Mighty Heart

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman
Rated: R for horror violence, some sexual content and language
Type of Movie: Drama, Thriller, War, History
Theater or Rent: Not at the theater anymore - so you'll have to rent
Description:“It was an event that shocked the world. This is the story you haven't heard.”
“On January 23, 2002, Mariane Pearl's world changed forever. Her husband Daniel, South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was researching a story on shoe bomber Richard Reid. The story drew them to Karachi where a go-between had promised access to an elusive source. As Danny left for the meeting, he told Mariane he might be late for dinner. He never returned.In the face of death, Danny's spirit of defiance and his unflinching belief in the power of journalism led Mariane to write about his disappearance, the intense effort to find him and his eventual murder in her memoir A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl.Six months pregnant when the ordeal began, she was carrying a son that Danny hoped to name Adam. She wrote the book to introduce Adam to the father he would never meet. Transcending religion, race and nationality, Mariane's courageous desire to rise above the bitterness and hatred that continues to plague this post 9/11 world, serves as the purest expression of the joy of life she and Danny shared.”
OK for Kids? No, this is an adult movie.
Opinion: This movie was just OK for me. I felt like they could have left out the bad language and sexual content and still had a good film. I didn't know much about the Daniel Pearl incident so I found that interesting, and sad. The acting was good and Angelina may well win an Academy for it. Though, I am not sure what I thought of the way Mariane was portrayed as handling the incident. I had to think about that for a while. She seemed to have it "all together" when around others and when asked in the media about her feelings, she always commented saying this happens to lots of people, Daniel is just one of them. I guess, if say - my husband was a missionary who was killed "on the job" it would be good to point out that he was one of many who are doing this good work, etc. - I guess I just don't get how anyone could hold it together so well after something so tragic. Anyways, if you can overlook the bad language and sexual content, it's an interesting movie to see, but if not, I wouldn't say you're missing anything spectacular.

A good Review: here

1 comment:

Monica said...

This is one of the few movies that I have seen in the theater this year. My husband was going to a film review on it to discuss Christian world view. Basically what the producers/writers/actors are trying to convey vs. what is the Truth. I agree with your review. I was fascinated by it because it was based on a true story and I'm a sucker for those. What really stuck with me was the culture- here are all these people seemingly stacked on top of each other, there seems to be no order and they all have computers and cell phones and are somehow networked together. That was an eye opener.