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Mighty Heart, A
Paramount Vantage


7.4

based on 38 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 27 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language

Starring Dan Futterman, Angelina Jolie, Archie Panjabi, Irfan Khan, Denis O'Hare, Will Patton, and Gary Wilmes

Angelina Jolie stars as Mariane Pearl, wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, in director Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of Mariane's memoir "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl," recounting the abduction and murder of her husband by Pakistani militants.

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	John Orloff Mariane Pearl (book)
DIRECTED BY:	Michael Winterbottom
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 16, 2007 Theatrical: June 22, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	100 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK / USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Stunning.

100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The title comes from the memoir by Mariane Pearl, wife of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. It applies equally to Winterbottom, who has made the rarest movie among this summer's releases: a taut police procedural that examines all sides of an issue and forces us to re-think our own.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Moving and frighteningly real.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Though absurdly criticized for being too "white" to play Mariane Pearl, Jolie gives an excellent performance. She portrays Mariane as gutsy, smart, passionate and highly efficient.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The film belongs to Jolie. She won an Oscar for 1999's "Girl, Interrupted," but this is by far her best performance.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The film takes its cue from the widow, neither sermonizing or even villainizing, content to serve quietly as an admirable exercise in restraint and a moving example of the grace under pressure that is the essence of courage.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

What is best about A Mighty Heart is that it doesn't reduce the Daniel Pearl story to a plot, but elevates it to a tragedy. A tragedy that illuminates and grieves for the hatred that runs loose in our world, hatred as a mad dog that attacks everyone. Attacks them for what seems, to the dog, the best of reasons.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Emotionally and viscerally compelling and retains a suspenseful, edge-of-the-seat quality.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The most striking thing about it is what it's not...a richly atmospheric film that races surefootedly through complexities of data and emotion like a spy movie and not at all like a sentimental sob story.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Visceral, alive and very scary.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The film's point of view is inevitably that of an outsider, which Danny Pearl was, and menace is the essence of this shattering story, which has been told with skill and urgent conviction. A Mighty Heart makes the terms of the terrorist threat palpable.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Effectively fashioned, as jolting as it is polished, as well as a surprising, insistently political work of commercial art.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

Expertly fashioned documentary-style drama.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Michael Winterbottom has made an enormously moving document of the tense days between Pearl's capture and the news that he was dead.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

That sense of one small, private world shattering within the larger and even more unstable one around it is the essence of Michael Winterbottom's unmooring, bleakly beautiful film version of A Mighty Heart.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

What does not work, in a movie where almost everything, including dramatic rhetoric, has been kept on a modest scale up to this point, is the heavy-handed way Winterbottom (and Jolie) contrast the pain of loss with the pain of begetting toward the end.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The story feels as urgent as the latest bad news out of the Middle East.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Heart-wrenching film.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Remarkably apolitical, considering that it comes from the director of the Bush-bashing "The Road to Guantanamo."

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

A worthy film on a great, tragic subject.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The film is fascinating and at times disturbing, but Winterbottom's arms-length style mutes any emotional impact.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Jolie simply exercises Mariane's persistent will, and honors her in the process.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A taut, meticulously crafted police procedural.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The result, like many of Winterbottom's films, lies an inch short of disarray; we CAN keep pace with the investigation, but only just, and that sense of splintering honors the unpredictability of the setting.

Variety Justin Chang

In his first studio venture, Michael Winterbottom coaxes forth a staggering wealth of detail from this terse, methodical account of Pearl's kidnapping and murder in Pakistan.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The movie is clipped, blunt, and grimly realistic. It is practically a POLICIER , although the suspense is mitigated by our knowledge that the investigation will end badly.

Newsweek David Ansen

Like many of Winterbottom's movies, it falls a step short of its full potential. Its tact is both its strength and its weakness. The climax feels rushed: it's the rare movie these days that feels too short.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Functions primarily as a suspense film, and it manages to be gripping even though the outcome is already known.

Slate Dana Stevens

This is one of those roles where casting can't help but trump acting. Like Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, Angelina Jolie IS Mariane Pearl--and that marquee-size "is" gets in the way, not of her performance, but of our ability to suspend disbelief and watch it.

Time Richard Schickel

This movie does not fully separate itself from our admittedly low -- even slightly shameful -- expectations, does not become the pure documentary it might perhaps better have been.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Despite the best of intentions, an actress who makes her own headlines gets in the way of the big picture.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The overriding tone of A Mighty Heart is neither indignant nor sentimental: The film is consistently cool, almost to a fault.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

For the most part, Michael Winterbottom's well-intended film, the true story of an idealistic journalist and his gallant wife disinvites emotion by focusing on process at the expense of passion.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

I almost wish A Mighty Heart were about the Captain, and I'd bet director Michael Winterbottom does, too. The character contains all the contradictory impulses of this region of the world that the West tries and miserably fails to boil down to black and white.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

The movie is engrossing and well-acted throughout (especially Khan), but ultimately leaves us less optimistic about the prospects for peace.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A Mighty Heart has the surface tension of a first-rate docudrama but neither the passion nor the vision to encompass its powerhouse subject.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Angelina Jolie is the major alienation effect in A Mighty Heart, although she's not the only one. The hectic pizzazz with which hired gun Michael Winterbottom directs this tale of terrifying terrorism is another distraction.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

The elliptical narrative also recalls Fernando Meirelles' somewhat similarly themed "The Constant Gardener," a film ultimately more heartfelt and accessible to mainstream audiences because its maker is unafraid of grief and explores it more deeply.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Daniel N. gave it a10:
One of a kind. One of the most important films this year and every American should see it. Jolie at her very best. Give her the Oscar now.

Darlene G. gave it a10:
Angelina Jolie - amazing woman, amazing actress, amazing heart. Great performance worthy of an Oscar.

Jared C gave it a0:
Blow me. They try to make this movie to be an emotional sad film, but had no taste at all. Angelina Jolie was all right but the plot was completely out of the ordinary pointless.

Linda M gave it a9:
Gripping, restrained and intelligently portrayed.

John W. gave it a10:
tense, devastating and emotional. AJ gives a performance that perfectly captures the anger, hope, and despair of Mariane Pearl. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time; a thriller and a love story all at once. Very moving. Loved the end song and the simple piano piece over the flashbacks.

Caladonia K. gave it a10:
FANTASTIC. Angelina is brilliant in this heartbreaking masterpiece.

Jocelyn G. gave it a10:
If anyone of you who see any dissatisfaction with the film are looking only on one aspect of the film which is the popularity of the Miss Jolie, in the back of anyones mind, can you honestly say that you or anyone else can do a much better job of playing the role of Miss Pearl? Yes Pearl was played by a Caucasian as well as the most popular actress, but you have to admit that with make-up, wig and accent, she did disappear from being Jolie to being Marianne Pearl, not only by looks but by playing the main character of the story. If no one can see this, then non of you have the right to be critics because you judge by the celebrity status of the actress and not by how intense she can play the part. jg...

Mighty Heart, A Paramount Vantage

Mighty Heart, A
Paramount Vantage