TWO SUMMERS AGO, WHILE BRAD AND Angelina were making New York even hotter with their match-made-in-heaven movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Mr. Winterbottom was also trying to sex up the summer movie landscape—with the much-maligned 9 Songs. The film is practically the opposite of A Mighty Heart—very cheap, decadent, hip, personal; when this reporter tried to draw a connection between the two films, Mr. Winterbottom laughed.
That film followed the rise, fall and decline of one relationship between a young American woman living in London and her British boyfriend. They go to nine concerts (hence the title) and fight, eat and have lots of sex in between. That film garnered attention for its unsimulated lovemaking scenes between the two actors, who were strangers the first day they had to shag. People called it porn; Mr. Winterbottom called it realism. The film bombed.
What will be the fate of this outing? A Mighty Heart has drawn more media attention than Knocked Up or any recent blockbuster, but that won’t ensure a flock of moviegoers. The story is a tough sell—it’s sad, and we know how it ends (badly). And even with Angelina … are people as hungry for her art as they are for photos of Shiloh or mohawked bad-ass Maddox?
For fans of Mr. Winterbottom, it won’t matter.
