The Mighty Heart recounts the events when Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter got kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan after 9/11 and how his wife, a fellow journalist relentlessly searched for him. It is a pretty straight forward story, a docudrama with out the usual Hollywood "big scenes," which, don't get me wrong, it's a good thing. (After being satieted with all fast-paced, effects driven films, one should put her/himself in a particular mode before watching this film) The actors were really subtle, the film not melodramatic.
A bad viewer as I am, I thought ahead. Anticipated how authorities would inform Mariane of Daniel's death. That was the saddest part. "Sorry, Danny didn't make it," that was the line that broke the strong facade of Mariane. She broke down, in a foreign land, with no one to hold and hush her down. It was almost painful to watch her thank people who helped her search for Daniel around the dinner table, while holding back her tears and forcing out a smile.
How Mariane held herself together through out is very admirable. She bore no hate nor bitterness towards the kidnappers, nor blamed authorities for not finding Daniel. She didn't succumbed to fear. Her husband's death gave her more strenght and determination to do her job.
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I am never apolitical, but have not really read on much about other countries' domestic and internal(tional) events. The movie got me curious on Pakistan-India and Jewish-Islamic relationships.
