A Mighty Heart Plot

A Mighty Heart is a 2007 film adaptation of Mariane Pearl's memoir, A Mighty Heart.

A Mighty Heart is a detailed account of the search for kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, focusing on his pregnant wife, Mariane Pearl.

Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi by supporters of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who claimed responsibility (and were later captured and convicted) for kidnapping and beheading Pearl in 2002. The movie also covers efforts by Department of Justice and Diplomatic Security Service special agents to track the kidnappers and bring them to justice.

For security reasons, the majority of the film, including all scenes with Angelina Jolie was shot in Pune, Maharashtra, India rather than in Pakistan. However many of the exteriors and all scenes involving the kidnapping, were shot at the real locations in Karachi with actor Dan Futterman. The film's other Indian location was Mumbai, where Danny and Marianne lived. Flashback scenes were shot there. The film was also shot in France and Austin, Texas.

Released in North America on June 22, 2007, the film has been reviewed by, among others, Variety, Rolling Stone, Salon.com, Hollywood Reporter, and Entertainment Weekly.

There have been some incidents involving the film's security detail and local residents of Pune. In one incident, an Associated Press photographer was allegedly assaulted by bodyguards and threatened with a gun. In another, a security guard allegedly grabbed a photographer by the throat outside of the hotel where Jolie and Pitt were staying. The most recent incident occurred in November 2006, at a school where bodyguards are accused of verbally abusing and assaulting parents who were picking up their children. Paparazzi may have provoked the incident.

Asra Nomani, a colleague of Danny Pearl who had agreed to participate in the film, stated that the film failed to portray Pearl in favor of creating a dramatic arc of "ordinary heroes," in reaction to which she believes Pearl would have "rolled his eyes." She described her reaction: "For me, watching the movie was like having people enter my home, rearrange the furniture and reprogram my memory."

Pop culture critic Orville Lloyd Douglas has criticized the casting of Angelina Jolie in the role of Mariane Pearl because, he said, "Jolie is white" and Mariane Pearl is "bi-racial." Douglas claimed that "there was an uproar by the African American community," that Pearl has an "ambivalence about her black heritage," and that although the real Mariane Pearl is not dark skinned, Jolie's portrayal is blackface and an example of Hollywood discrimination against black actresses. In fact, Mariane Pearl is multiracial: half Dutch-Jewish, three eighths Afro-Latino-Cuban and one eighth Chinese Cuban.