Angelina Jolie plays an Afro Cuban in "A Mighty Heart"

Coming out this week is the story of one woman's courage and sadness. It's the story of a reporter's death and the details that led to his murder, told through the eyes of his wife, Marianne. Marianne was in Afghanistan and pregnent when her husband Daniel was beheaded. Now comes her story to the big screen, "A Mighty Heart". Playing Marianne will be Oscar winner Angelina Jolie. The interesting thing about this is that Marianne is Afro-Cuban!

While race is NOT a factor in the film, and Jolie gives an Oscar caliber performance, I have go on record and ask why couldn't they cast a African American or Latina actress for the role. Granted, with Brad Pitt producing and Jolie starring in the film, visibility is at the highest level for the film, BUT when there is severely a lack of leading roles for Black and Latina actresses, a role like this would have done wonders for anyone of color. According to the folks of Paramount Vantage, it was Marianne's choice for Jolie to play her. If I had a choice to pick an actress to play Marianne when the book was first brought to be made into a film, I'd probably would have gone with Thandie Newton. She's talented, and credible, and would have given an equal perfomance as Jolie. It may not have had the same marketability, but I doubt anyone would have complained.

A colleague of mine, Edward Douglas from www.comingsoon.net recently interviewed the director Michael Winterbottom and asked the question that most folks wants to know about the race issue. "I'm not sure how much you'd been reading in various places about perceptions of the movie, but there seems to be somewhat of a stir in the African-American community questioning the fact that you had Angelina playing the role of Mariane with darkened skin, rather than getting someone who already had dark skin such as Thandie Newton or even a Latina actress."

Michael Winterbottom: I can't really understand that. How would a Latina woman be more like Mariane, who's French, half Dutch, half Cuban and a quarter Chinese. It just seems incredible generic, like a non-American is somehow more like another non-American than an American, which is kind of bizarre. I mean Angie's mother is French, but I think the most tricky for Angelina becoming Mariane was the accent, so I think if there was any issue, it would like, "Why not get a French woman to play the part?" But then of course, you got another set of issues, because the whole film is English. From my point of view, I first met Angelina in Namibia and it was with Mariane, and when I got there, they already knew each other and were obviously friends. Mariane trusted Angelina, and apparently--I hadn't realized it at the time--but Mariane said in France at the press conference in Cannes that she was the person that asked Angelina to play the part. So Mariane thought she was the best person to play the part. It's really incredibly weird in America that you kind of feel that anyone who's not American is the same. It's a very strange thing.

"I'm not sure if it's an American vs. foreign thing. I think it's more about getting someone less high profile or someone who looks more like Mariane without having to use make-up."

Winterbottom: As I say, from my point of view, it was perfect, because it's incredibly difficult to tell a story about someone who's a real person who's alive. When I got there, they clearly were very similar people, they're friends and when they talked about, not only about the film or Mariane's experience, but when then talked about how they see their roles as women and their roles as journalists or actors, they're very similar people. As I say, Mariane actually wanted Angelina to play the part, so it was perfect.

Nevertheless, the choice was made and as stated before, Jolie gives an incredible performance. The story is from Marianne's book and it follows her ordeal of learning of Daniel's kipnapping and eventual death. With all the big studio films capturing the box office attention, hopefully there's room for people to see this riveting and heavily dramatic film. Not just for Jolie's perfomance, but for the story itself.