Casting kudos and catastrophes

Angelina Jolie in “A Mighty Heart”

There were murmurs of controversy when it was announced that lily-white Angelina Jolie would be playing the biracial widow of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl. With her skin noticeably darkened for the role, Jolie managed to silence most of her critics, even when they had to acknowledge the trickery. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “A few obvious makeup changes make her resemble the woman we saw so often on TV… but Jolie’s performance depends above all on inner conviction.”

Made the grade  (Peter Mountain / AP)