Heart sinks at Mighty Heart

Went to the British film premier of Mighty Heart, starring the world’s most famous lips – Angelina Jolie. As the whole film is shot in big close-ups, largely hand-held, you see a lot of her face and when you see her face you see lips. They sort of stick out, curl up and down as of she were always ready to spit out a three foot steady stream of water. Simply a matter of miscasting. Then again her husband’s company, PlanB, was one of the funders. Perl’s wife, the subject of the film, is a long standing friend of Jolie’s. The bottom line is that Jolie of more of a face and body than star.

To be honest, I couldn’t see why this particular episode, in the whole sorry tale of the US and the Middle East, was worthy of retelling on film. It had no perspectives beyond the immediacy of the kidnapping and stupidly descended into a piece of propaganda towards the end, with its scenes from a Jewish wedding and Perl’s Israeli testimony. It’s hopelessly one sided and all the complexity that is built up round the ISI, different intelligence services, servants, aides, diplomats and contacts collapses into simplistic schmaltz.

Many fine films will be made on the current problems in the Middle East, this is not one of them.