ongoing

 Generally speaking, when we post items on the site about movies it's about film festivals, indy films, foreign films or Hollywood films that might get lost in the shuffle. You don't need us to wank on about "Fantastic Four" or "Spiderman 3." Fitting into the latter category of comment - a Hollywood film that could get lost - is "A Mighty Heart." It only made $4 million its opening weekend. Pretty small for a movie that stars Angelina Jolie. But, then again, this is no "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." Jolie plays the wife of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped and killed in Pakistan. And while her character - a journalist, a Buddhist, an expectant mother and loving wife - is compelling, the movie comes out in the midst of cartoon adventure stories, silly stuff and wannabe blockbusters. It's a gritty, darkly shot, downbeat movie, where you know the beginning and end points before you enter the theater. But we urge you to do so. It's a maddening world Pearl (played by Dan Futterman) enters to try and pry information, and it's just as maddening - convoluted, crazy - when Jolie and her diplomatic associates try and puzzle out the case. It's odd to become immersed in a movie where there's not real dramatic tension - we know Pearl will be killed. (We don't know how graphic the depiction will be or if there will be a depiction. We know the killers videotaped it.) But it's an experience worth going through, sort of like "United 93." Jolie is, as has been said, very good, shedding actorly mannerisms for the part. (Hubby Brad Pitt is co-producer; these two apparently are really trying to make movies that matter, at least some of the time.) It made me think about how mad this interconnected, multi-media world is - oh, did I want to shut off everyone's cell phone in the movie - and how complex tensions between people are (and probably have always been.) It made me think about Carl Hiaasen's character in his novels, the retired Flordia governor who grows his hair long, inhabits an island and tries to live out his days peacefully and alone, away from the crazies and the conflict. Can't say that doesn't have an appeal some days. But, really, what can we do? We just have to acknowledge we live in this mess - and generally are quite privileged to live further away from it than most of the world. We all have our shelters from the storms, and we need them. And we can safely peek out out for a couple of hours to watch those storms on the silver screen. It's playing at AMC Loews Harvard Square.  Tickets: $9.  Shows at 2:30, 4:45, 7:15 and 9:45 p.m.

 www.boston.mrmovietimes.com