good morning & happy friday! last week i got the chance to attend a screening of a mighty heart starring angelina jolie as real-life mariane pearl – the widow of slain reporter daniel pearl – the film is based on ms. pearl’s penned account of her husband’s kidnapping & subsequent murder in karachi, pakistan in a book also called ‘a mighty heart’ – i knew the film would be tense and upsetting – and of course it was but i did find myself on the edge of my seat the whole time even though i already knew how it ended! i can’t exactly say run out and see this movie – if you wanted to see it then i’d say for sure go check it out but i know some people like to escape at the movies & forget reality – this is not that kind of film! (this is more a saturday afternoon type thing rather than a friday night date movie…)
director michael winterbottom did an amazing job at creating tension & suspense – it’s a very well put together film plus the acting was superb – especially ms. jolie who is already garnering oscar buzz for her performance – i’ll add fuel to that fire – she did an excellent job! once the film got going i completely forgot i was watching angelina – say what you want about her – she is truly a talented actress! the film also stars dan futterman as mr. pearl but the story really focuses on mariane’s plight to find her husband in a foreign land filled with danger & deceit around every corner…
after seeing the film i’d actually love to read ms. pearl’s book – such a strong willed woman who really held herself together in a time of crisis while also being pregnant – i couldn’t imagine ever being in her situation nor would i want to see anyone else endure what she had too! i’ll be interested to see how the film does numbers wise – it is being heavily advertised here – although i just can’t see it pulling in large numbers – but we’ll keep an eye around oscar nom time to see if ms. jolie could be up for another oscar (she already nabbed one for ‘girl, interrupted’) popbytes over & out for now…xxoo!
on january 23, 2002, mariane pearl’s world changed forever. her husband daniel, the 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 murderer 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.
