Angelina Jolie stars as Mariane Pearl, wife of slain journalist Daniel
Pearl, in director Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of Mariane's memoir
recounting the abduction and murder of her husband (played in the film by Dan
Futterman) by Pakistani militants. It was on January 23, 2002 that Mariane
Pearl's life took a grim and unanticipated turn that no one could have seen
coming. The South Asia Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearl
was in Pakistan with his pregnant wife Mariane when he set out to conduct one
last interview for an upcoming article. The pair were due to fly back home to
the U.S. shortly thereafter, before doing so Daniel needed to conduct one last
interview. By all accounts it was the same type of interview he had conducted a
hundred times before, and though the only concern that Pearl voiced beforehand
was that he might be a bit late for dinner it would soon become obvious that
something had gone horribly awry. Later, in an attempt to rise about the
seething vengeance and cycle of violence that the post-9/11 world has fallen
into and familiarize her newborn son with the father he will never know, Mariane
penned A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl. The
remarkable true story behind the murder that shook the entire world, Mariane's
deeply personal novel is adapted for the screen by the BAFTA award-winning
director of The Road to Guantanamo. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie
Guide
