Brad & Angie Book it Outta Bilbao

Fire Walk with Angelina
You’ll read a lot of reviews about Angelina’s early Oscar contender. But we bet this is the only write-up that connects it back to David Lynch.
Friday, June 22, 2007 at 6:30 PM
By Brent Simon

Despite the fact that a mere handful of companies control the collective Hollywood purse strings, movies have always been staked and sold on the whims, interests and inclinations of the industry’s stars. If there’s a popular figure with a will and an idea, or one just willing to serve as an ally for such, then there’s a go-project looming just over the horizon. And so it is that a film like the rooted-in-reality A Mighty Heart, a labyrinthine, terminally depressing movie about the wife of kidnapped and ultimately beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, comes to see the light of day just after the official dawn of summer. A very autumnal, let’s say, film releasing in the midst of a lot of splashy, effects-laden fare, A Mighty Heart is a project built for the long-run, certainly. Still, even though it stars tabloid favorite Angelina Jolie, its commercial prospects hinge on how willing American audiences are to relive a story as complex as it is unpleasant in nature, particularly as news of more violence from Iraq and abroad filters in over the next several months.

Directed by Michael Winterbottom, A Mighty Heart is a doomed investigational piece of glancing emotional blows. Donning brown contacts and a light French accent, Jolie plays Mariane Pearl, Daniel’s wife, six months pregnant at the time of the ordeal in January, 2002, while Oscar-nominated screenwriter Dan Futterman (a phenomenal ringer for the real-life Pearl) plays the reporter himself, who disappears from a prearranged meeting in Karachi, Pakistan, while researching a story on captured, would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid. The part of Daniel is a relatively small one, reduced to a number of professional encounters and all sorts of flashbacks that inform the depth of his relationship with his wife. The bulk of A Mighty Heart might best be described as a tangled procedural. Full of two steps forward and one step back, it’s all about the mad scramble of inquiry that plays out over the course of a few tense weeks, as mysterious names, cell phone records and email addresses are cross-checked and connected to other suspects and organizations, all in a mad effort to even identify (much less locate) Daniel’s captors. While the supporting characters take a long while to come into focus as individuals, the film’s rendering of collective intelligence agency finger-pointing is a convincing one. A mixed group of Pakistanis and Americans - local police, FBI, assorted intelligence officials, even Daniel’s Journal editor, John Bussey (Denis O’Hare) - all come together, but it takes a while before competing agendas are settled and brought into line.

A Mighty Heart is powered, though, by Jolie’s performance, and her portrayal of Mariane is one of mesmerizingly tightened effect and distress - her very soul seems clenched. The script by John Orloff, from Mariane Pearl’s own book, convincingly sketches its leading lady’s resoluteness, but does so in a very inwardly reflected fashion. Two big emotional moments leapt out for me, very obviously designed as poles to one another. The first can be intuited by the subject matter; it’s a protracted howl of anguished grief when Mariane finally learns, late in the film, of her husband’s fate, and it’s notable because of how it stands in contrast to the manner in which so many movies (and especially TV shows) peddle sorrow and pain in polite strokes. It reminded me, in a way, of the reaction of Grace Zabriskie’s character to the death of her daughter, Laura Palmer, in the late, great Twin Peaks. In the pilot of that TV series, directed by David Lynch, Zabriskie’s Sarah, already distraught, is on the phone with her husband, Leland, who mutters the name of the arriving sheriff, whom he glimpses at a nearby desk. Intuiting what has yet to be said, Sarah gasps and wails, calling out her daughter’s name and begging her husband to tell her it’s not true. When he wordlessly drops the phone, the camera follows the cord down to the receiver, where we still hear Sarah on the other end of the line, and then returns to show us one last pitiable, violently wrenching shot of Sarah.

I still remember seeing that scene more than 15 years ago because when it faded slowly to black and went to commercial I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. The moment of release in A Mighty Heart is in its own way every bit as powerful, not the least of which because the entire movie could be described as an exercise in the rhythm method, and a study in forestalled climax. Jolie wails and screams, and what gets you is that Mariane’s mourning is as much for her unborn son as it is for herself. The film’s other moment that caught in my throat, though, is a light and almost impulsive fragment. Giving an interview several days after Daniel’s disappearance, and still having received no word from the kidnappers, Mariane is asked if there is anything she would say to her husband if he could now hear her. The answer in and of itself is brief and obvious (“I love you”), but the sing-song, knee-jerk reflexivity of Jolie’s line-reading is heartrending, and a reminder that sometimes the most obvious sentiment is still the most poignant. Though he succumbs to the power of Jolie’s visage by trading in more close-ups than normal for his work, director Winterbottom doesn’t dote much on action, or search out “money shots.” As the dragnet finally closes in on a few men, there is the chillingly effective implication of so-called water-boarding and other torture (an offscreen glance here, a detained individual with wet hair there), but little to nothing in the way of actual violence, which looms like a specter above this piece. Just as the grief in A Mighty Heart is finally conveyed in direct, unadorned fashion, when the movie reaches its… what to call it — climax? final resting place? — it finds a way with its language, in a disturbingly elliptical euphemism, to convey the same sort of heartbreak. Having already previously suffered through false reports of Daniel’s death, Mariane asks about proof, and is told, grimly, “They had a life, and they used it in a way so as to leave no doubt.” Having danced along the razor’s edge of doubt, hope and steadfastness for its entire running time, the declaration feels emotionally devastating. But it’s also moving in a genuine way, one tinged with discernment, and the compassion of tact — qualities that, if more greatly understood and embraced, could surely fuel more thoughtful, sympathetic worldviews.

http://www.filmstew.com/showArticle.aspx?ContentID=16089

From The Times

Michael Winterbottom’s harrowing film about Danny Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and decapitated in Karachi in 2002, is a raw account about the frantic efforts to get him back. It nails the ghastly moment when journalists became prized scalps for terror organisations. Angelina Jolie plays Pearl’s pregnant wife, Mariane – on whose memoir the film is based – with a rigour and passion that surprised even the most jaded sceptics in Cannes.

The film begins on the day Danny (Dan Futterman) fails to turn up for supper. He is working on a story about the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, and has arranged a meeting with an organisation who have background knowledge. A missed supper becomes a crisis within 24 hours. The film charts the hollow weeks Danny is missing mostly through Mariane’s eyes. The house of a close colleague becomes headquarters during the desperate search for motives and information.

There is a confusion of investigators treading on each other toes, and contradictory information about who might have snatched Pearl. Leaks and rash speculation in the press add to the vertiginous panic. At times it’s difficult to know who exactly is in charge. A terrific cast of fixers and officials tease out clues from laptops, emails, and telephone numbers. An uneasy alliance is gradually forged between an American diplomatic security agent, Randall Bennett (Will Patton), various Wall Street Journal friends including the editor, John Bussey (Denis[correct] O’Hare), the head of the Pakistan’s brand new counter-terrorism unit, Captain (Irrfan Khan), the Citizens Police Liaison Committee, and the FBI.

At the still centre of this increasingly tense investigation is Jolie’s defiant Mariane. The film shuttles manically between meetings, endless telephone calls, the growing media frenzy, and the streets of Karachi with terrific confidence. What the kidnapping means to each character is etched on their faces. The power of this giant documentary-style jigsaw lies between the rumours, the false leads, and the hard details. Winterbottom captures brilliantly the chaos of daily life in Pakistan, and the febrile atmosphere as Pearl is first denounced as a CIA spy, and then – when his Jewish roots are fatally exposed – an agent for Mossad.

The director’s rapid-fire and choppy editing gives you a genuine feel for the many different sides of Karachi, and the urgency of the investigation. Shots of street vendors and overloaded buses are slotted between armed raids and interrogations. You can almost smell the fear on suspects. And there’s a controversial flavour about the vested, sometimes murky, interests of assorted officials. Ultimately what makes the film such an affecting modern parable is the authenticity of the emotions. Jolie’s blasts of grief when Mariane hears the dreaded news that her husband has been beheaded pricks tears and raises the hairs on your neck.

Review by Diana Saenger

In a world laced with conflict and turmoil, a movie regarding a real life tragedy about the gruesome death of a journalist covering a war commands a built-in audience. Add in superstar Angelina Jolie as the lead, and it’s no surprise A Mighty Heart is generating a lot of buzz.

Jolie plays Mariane Pearl, wife of Wall Street Journal South Asia Bureau Chief Daniel Pearl (Dan Futterman). Marianne, herself a newspaper reporter, has no qualms about following her husband on assignment to Pakistan, even though the devoted couple is expecting their first child. Daniel is there to work on a story about 2002’s shoe bomber, Richard Reid. As expected, he must work through dozens of contacts to get leads for his story and trust that their contacts are also safe.

The beginning of the film sets this scene as Daniel traverses the streets of Karachi, Pakistan, where it’s obvious how chaotic life is in this third-world country. The streets are overly crowded, Daniel meets most of his contacts in dark places while unaccompanied at night — as the shaky hand-held camera of Marcel Zyskind offers up suspenseful scenes of this experience. Back in the couple’s compound where they live and work, Mariane calmly awaits her husband’s return home and the arrival of their baby.

One night when Danny heads out to meet with his go-between source, Omar Saeed Sheikh, aka “Bashir,” he doesn’t return for dinner. As the hours tick by, Mariane becomes increasingly worried. A host of friends arrive to help keep vigil; Asra Nomani (Archie Panjabi), an old friend and WSJ colleague of Danny’s living in Karachi, WSJ’s John Bussey (Denis O’Hare), Steve LeVine (Gary Wilmes) and U.S. diplomatic security specialist Randall Bennett (Will Patton).
Although she has much support, Mariane remains calm, even after a videotape surfaces to announce that Daniel has been kidnapped. She knows the drill, and does not become a crying-why-me, hysterical wife. Instead she’s the hard-core professional journalist who spends every tick of the clock to drive both the U.S. and Pakistan governments to do all they can to find Daniel.

As numerous agencies including the FBI and Captain (Irfan Khan), the head of Pakistan’s counter-terrorism unit, work around the clock, Mariane is checked out by a doctor and remains committed to keeping calm for the well being of her unborn child.

Jolie does a fine job of portraying Mariane, especially in the heartfelt scenes after the video of Daniel’s beheading surfaces. However, for me she’s become so notable, I simply cannot forget Jolie’s an actress and not the character. While I appreciated and was interested in knowing about this tragedy, Jolie’s presence along with the film’s intention not to be sentimental left me unemotionally involved – something some attending this film might expect.

A Mighty Heart, based on Mariane Pearl’s book, is mainly focused on revealing exactly what’s happening to so many journalists covering these situations. In the five years since Daniel Pearl’s death, nearly 230 journalists have been killed in the line of duty. Clearly, the movie is also designed to paint a vivid picture of what kind of man Daniel Pearl was, and while that objective is sincerely met, Mariane Pearl says it best - “In his work, Danny struggled to keep free of dogma and alliance. He didn’t represent a country or a flag, just the pursuit of truth. He was there to hold up a mirror and force people to look at themselves. What better way is there to respect humanity?”

http://www.reviewexpress.com/review.php?rv=478

599 LOVE ANGELINA | 06/25/2007 at 5:56 am
Love them or hate them, there is STILL one fan that will never talk **** about these two and that’s me. lol

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Glad to see another Brad and Angelina fan, but don’t steal my screen name. I have been a lurker for awhile then I started posting under my real name, and now I post under LOVE ANGELINA cuz I am her fan first and foremost. Soooooo please get another one. Keep supporting our couple though.

#635 LOVE ANGELINA
sorry i didn’t know you use that one. Thanx anyway!!!

LOVE THE JOLIE PITTS!!!!!!!!

New pics,Angie Pax and Zahara!

http://jjb.yuku.com/topic/73336/t/BRAD-ANGELINA-MEGA-POST-.html?page=29

uh-oh. where is brad? i got a bad feeling. angelina looks crazy happy, brad’s not there and he should be. could this be all she wrote for hollywoods terrible twosome?

Angie looks beautiful.

Thanks Meli !

Angelina looks fierce, stunning and very relax. That little escapade was undoubtedky the spanish version of the african jungle fever she had with Brad.

She looks great and radiant !

I’LL TELL YOU WHAT A DISAPOINTMENT AMH HAD AT THE BOX OFFICE THIS WEEKEND WITH ONLY AN ESTIMATED 4 MILLION…

“THE BREAK-UP” STARRING JENNIFER ANISTON AND VINCE VAUGHN LAST SUMMER…YOU KNOW THE ONE THAT “BANGIE” FANS SLAMMED AS TOTAL BOX OFFICE FLUBBER?

38.1 MILLION. THAT’S RIGHT 38.1 MILLION THE FIRST WEEKEND ALONE.

JENNIFER IS LAUGHING HER SEXY ROUND ASS OFF AT THAT FLAT ASSED COAT HANGER.

Oops!! I forgot!! Thank you new pics and Meli for the heads up!!

Saw AMH this weekend and I hate to say it, but I was really not feeling it. I think Angelina has done so much better with much less. Her accent was horrible (even she admits it’s just not her strong point) It sounded just like the accent she used in “Alexandre” It kept pulling me out of the movie…she kept mumbling and looked so uncomfortable and too much of her came out. DON’T GET ME WRONG, I AM A HUGE FAN OF HER’S, and always have been. But not an Oscar performance this time around. I love the story line, the truth behind it just gets lost by who’s telling it. C+ cause I love her.