Bloodless Coup

A Mighty Heart

I put off watching this Michael Winterbottom film for a long time. I figured it was going to be rough getting through it, given the subject matter. But actually it wasn't - and it's really quite good.

I should say at the start that I don't tend to care for the way Winterbottom directs, and that was to a degree once again the case here. I mean his "you are there" style works perfectly for the way the story is told, so that's fine. But the way it's shot and edited is distracting and choppy. It's nice how he just throws you in a scene, and the camera moves all around - but the choppy presentation makes it a bit hard to follow at times.

But getting beyond that, the shooting, the script, the setting, the acting, the cross-cutting of scenes from different times - it's all really good. The film is surprisingly life-affirming and optimistic - though of course what it chronicles is a horrible time. It's primarily a procedural. What you are watching for 100 minutes is mostly a chronicle of what went on in the life of Mariane Pearl and those around her as they tried to get news and free her husband. Here and there you see how that search fit into a wide array of political disputes and competing frames of international relations and journalism - for example, how this was tied into the India/Pakistan dispute, or the role that US newspapers should or shouldn't have in cooperating with the US government, and the effects of their choices. And those things are quite interesting. But mostly you are simply watching the (great) difficulties involved in the search - even when massive pressure is being put on the Pakistani president by Secretary Powell, and even though the (quite cooperative) local police have interrogation methods at their disposal that US police do not.

All in all, I'd recommend it if you think you might be interested in it. It is a compeling film. And actually would be one that a lot of International Studies majors and the like could probably get a lot out of. Oh, and Ms. Jolie is indeed very good. Really quite good. If I had to pick a "most impressive" person out of the cast I'd likely go with Irfan Khan - but Jolie, Dan Futterman, and the rest of the cast are all very good in their roles.