Reviewing the Reviews: 'A Mighty Heart'
Jun 22, 2007, 03:51 PM | by Michael Slezak
Categories: Film, Reviewing the Reviews
Remember the innocent days, before Taking Lives and Original Sin, when Angelina Jolie (pictured, with Dan Futterman) was better known as an Academy Award-winner than as a tabloid staple? Apparently, so do most of America's newspaper critics, who give the actress almost unanimous raves for her performance as Mariane Pearl (wife of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl) in A Mighty Heart, opening today. In fact, a few of them mention the magic 'O' word — and I'm not talking about Oprah. Read on…
James Ward, Gannett News Service: "...But in the end, the movie belongs to Jolie. Her fierce, simple performance is worthy of Oscar consideration. Her performance here is clearly the best of her career. There's none of her usual on-screen vamping or self-aware performance that has made so many of her recent movies so bad. (Anyone remember her accent in Alexander? Shudder.)..."
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: ".... It is only at the end, when Mariane, along with the rest of the world, discovers her husband's sad, horrible fate, that the film gives us a bolt of untethered emotion and Jolie is allowed to take over, with a display of animalistic, uncontrollable grief that probably will bring her that Oscar nomination. It'll be well-deserved."
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: ".... As it stands, then, A Mighty Heart leads inexorably to Jolie's magnificent scream, which is more — deeper — than a mere Oscar-baiting moment. The film is most vivid and immediate when Jolie, her character's patience and facade cracking, accesses a full tangle of impulses at once. She is a uniquely intense screen presence. We can only imagine what Mariane's ordeal was like. Jolie and Winterbottom come closer than most could have in imagining it for us."
Ed Bradley, The Flint Journal: ".... Jolie plays Mariane with a quiet strength and subdued intensity that heightens only after her husband's fate is known...."
Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times: ".... And Jolie gives one of her finest screen performances: You can see, beneath a composed exterior, how this woman is desperately trying to keep panic at bay...."
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "Jolie, whose offscreen antics have consistently upstaged her acting career since winning an Oscar seven years ago, puts aside her celebrity long enough to deliver a dazzling performance as Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart...."
Susan Dunne, Hartford Courant: "....Only near the end, when Jolie howls in pain at the loss of her husband, does she command, and deservedly get, a viewer's undivided attention. It's at this point that one realizes how fine Jolie's performance has been all along...."
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "....Jolie is a star of such super-stratospheric proportions that the chances of her disappearing into a character role would seem slim at best. But she delivers a restrained, understated performance...."
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "....Jolie is onscreen less than you'd expect, which gives each scene more impact. Through her stoic grief and anger, you can see her psychological need to believe in the authorities, alongside her professional suspicion that they're insulating her from the harsh truth. Winterbottom doesn't provide his star with opportunities to showboat: her most emotional scenes are shot from a discreet distance...."
Bill Everhart, Berkshire Eagle: "....Winterbottom eschews easy sentiment and cheap melodrama. The verisimilitude he seeks is enhanced by Angelina Jolie, whose extraordinary performance as Mariane Pearl offers proof that Jolie — megacelebrity and magazine cover staple — is an actress with serious chops."
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: "....Critical to the emotional connections A Mighty Heart makes is the performance of Jolie as Mariane Pearl. The Oscar-winning actress, whose significant skills have been eclipsed by her position as a tabloid favorite, puts the emphasis back where it belongs with a forceful, immediate and convincing performance...."
Marrit Ingman, Austin Chronicle: "....That said, Jolie is fine in the role once Winterbottom establishes that Mariane’s mother is Cuban, thereby explaining Jolie’s kinky hairdo and heavy bronzer. (The French accent she seems to command from her actual mother.) She looks great in a series of cotton wraps, unbloated except for her bump, and she handles a challenging scene late in the film with aplomb."
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