Mariane Pearl, Daniel's widow and the story's author, and director, Michael Winterbottom, have reconciled what might have been otherwise nothing more than competing clichés masterfully. Although it is a quasi-documentary with Art House film qualities and major studio financing, the movie masterfully avoids being subsumed into obvious genres of dull Made-For-TV docu-drama or blockbuster, big studio, face-paced espionage thriller (e.g. Bourne Identity or Mission Impossible). As much as I resisted being drawn in, I could not help but break into tears when the movie finally reaches its climax, when Mariane Pearl learns that her husband has been executed by his captors. Angelina Jolie's primal screams sound like she is being tortured. (The torture of a jihadi by the Pakistani intelligence agency does feature as one of the other most difficult to stomach scenes in the movie. It passes with little comment, as though there is almost no need for words, torture condemns itself whenever an audience cringes or averts eyes in horror.)

The night before I had watched Anderson Cooper interview Angelina Jolie in connection with her role as Goodwill Ambassador to the UNHCR. I was riveted by her articulate, compassionate and sincere expressions of concern and advocacy on behalf of the world's refugees. Like Mariane Pearl, Angelina does not so much take sides politically, but seeks to aid as many people as possible by helping to short circuit the efforts of terrorists to exploit the misery for recruitment purposes.


Mariane and Angelina blend in my mind now as two human beings seeking to do what they can to bring a nuanced, complex approach to the layered problems of terrorism, poverty, displaced persons and corruption. Jolie's performance, though at times difficult to watch, was evidence that as an actress she is able to tackle extremely difficult roles with tremendous agility (reminiscent of Hillary Swank's Brandon Teena and Charlize Theron's Eileen Wuornos).