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. Many regard this as Angelina Jolies’ strongest performance thus far as Mariane, Pearl’s pregnant wife at the time, on whose memoirs the film is based, a deeply moving story of the five weeks leading up to her husband’s death.
Winterbottom, of Road to Guantanamo fame, employ’s his polished, documentary film making style with great success, putting the viewer right into the situation, keeping tensions high. His gritty camerawork and settings create a sense of urgency, aptly complementing the powerful dialogues of the script. Ironically, only the film’s title smacks of sentimentalism, while the movie in fact excels as nail-biting political thriller cum docu-drama. Although based on real events plastered all over the news five years ago, it is fresh, yet fearing the inevitable ending.
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