A Mighty Heart

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 2.0

Part Lifetime movie, part police procedural - I happen to like the police procedural material better, because it doesn't involve Angelina Jolie (playing journalist Daniel Pearl's widow, Mariane) doing her best to look like she's not acting (she fails). It admittedly does a better job than some of the other movies to come out in 2007 in addressing problems in 'hostile nations' (in this case, Pakistan) - the hate runs deep, but there are those who just want justice served (the detective in charge of arresting those responsible, played masterfully by Sajid Hasan, gives the impression that he's sick of this nonsense). Most curious of all is the treatment of Pearl himself - he's relegated to being merely a symbol instead of a man, so when Winterbottom juxtaposes his brutal murder with that of sacrificial lambs being slaughtered on a Pakistani holiday, the comparison can't help but come across as being crude.