A Mighty Heart

A Mighty Heart dramatizes the 2002 abduction of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal's South Asia bureau chief, who was taken by militants in Karachi while investigating a story. His wife Mariane, six months pregnant and living in the city, learns of his disappearance and begins a desperate effort to find him, working alongside diplomats, local authorities and colleagues to establish what happened to him. The film follows her search rather than the kidnappers, centering on the uncertainty and strain of the weeks that followed.

Michael Winterbottom directed from a screenplay by John Orloff, adapting Mariane Pearl's memoir of her husband's life and death. It was the eighth of the fifteen films Winterbottom has directed in chronological order, arriving after 9 Songs and before The Killer Inside Me, and it follows his earlier ventures into Pakistan with a documentary-like approach. Angelina Jolie plays Mariane, with Dan Futterman as Daniel, Irrfan Khan as Zeeshan Kazmi, Archie Panjabi as Asra Q. Nomani and Denis O'Hare as John Bussey among a credited cast of twenty-one. Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Andrew Eaton produced for Plan B Entertainment, Paramount Vantage and Revolution Films.

The production had a budget of 16 million US dollars and took about 19 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.6 out of 10 from roughly 29,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.4 out of 10 from 358 votes. A film critics' rating of 7.3 out of 10 from 191 reviews places it above both audience scores.