Michael Winterbottom (2007)
A recreation of the events surrounding the capture and murder by terrorists – in Pakistan, in 2002 – of the American journalist Daniel Pearl, adapted by John Orloff from a memoir by Pearl’s widow. The storytelling is crisp and clear and the cast does well with their underwritten roles but the film isn’t illuminating about the political situation or the lives affected by the events it describes: it rarely seems much more than an accomplished reconstruction. The odd scene is strikingly developed – as when, in the course of a dinner party, under her guests’ comfortable chatter about politics, Mariane Pearl’s mood shifts imperceptibly from a slightly strained brightness – she’s five months pregnant, hot and tired – to unease and then to alarm about Daniel’s absence and silence. But the dramatic climaxes – the wife’s reaction to the news of her husband’s death, the birth of their baby – feel generic; and the spate of recent films with a Middle East war/terrorism context means that compositions like the Karachi cityscape with a soundtrack of muezzin call, car horns and mobile phones are already clichéd. Within the (considerable) limits of the screenplay, Angelina Jolie gives a strong, intelligent performance in the main role: although Mariane’s English is fluent, Jolie is particularly good at suggesting that this woman’s mind is always working even more rapidly than her quick tongue. Dan Futterman (who wrote the screenplay for Capote) gives a likeable and finely judged performance as Daniel: much of what we see of him is in his wife’s flashbacks and Futterman enables the camera to pick up what Mariane most wants to remember about her husband.
16 March 2008
