Dirty Pretty Things
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Movie Reviews of Dirty Pretty Things
Movie Review: Thoughful and Understated
Summary: 5 Stars
"We are the people you do not see."
"Dirty Pretty Things" is a film about the people we interact with every day, who we often don't take note of. Maids, janitors, late-night hotel clerks, taxi drivers, and the like. These are the people the film chooses to focus on, to give us some insight, and maybe to make us notice those we normally would not.
Okwe is the central character of the film. Early on, we find out he once was a doctor in another country, but now he's living in London and working as both a cab driver by day and a hotel clerk by night. He lacks a place to live of his own, so he's sharing an apartment with a maid at the same hotel, a young Turkish girl named Senay. He has many other friends throughout the city, all expatriates of one kind or another, now living in London and most of them doing odd jobs. Through the story of the film we come to know each of these people, the ones who normally slip under our radar.
The characters are well-drawn, but not at the sacrifice of the story. It grabs you right away, as Okwe is investigating a room just vacated in the hotel and discovers a heart stuck in the pipes of the toilet. A human heart. Okwe's dark discovery in the hotel room leads to him uncovering further depredations, all of them pointing to the things that happen underneath the surface of "civilized" society. These are the things that the title speaks of, the dirty things that we try to dress up and make pretty, but for those who actually experience them, they are still disgusting and unwanted.
As Okwe learns more about what is going on, we learn more about why he is in London, and why he is not a practicing physician...and just who he really is. We find that he's doing what he's doing and he is where is he is because he wants to stay under the radar, because he doesn't want to be noticed. The reasons for this will doubtless surprise you. When Okwe says, late in the film, "We are the people you do not see," we understand that this is how he prefers it. He's an intelligent, caring man...and he avoids notice as much as possible.
Senay, played by Audrey Tautou, is the other main character in the movie. If you're expecting Tautou to reprise her sprightly performance from "Amelie," think again -- Senay could not be less like Amelie. Senay is nervous, a little cold, and very serious. Tautou turns in a fine performance here, and she certainly adds extra dimension to the film. It is through Senay that we finally get the full picture of Okwe and his motivations, and it is also through her that another face is put on the faceless ones, the ones we do not see.
"Dirty Pretty Things" is not a happy movie. It's not a movie you see to feel good. It does have a great story with a lot of entertainment value, but maybe -- hopefully -- it will also help to open your eyes a little to the people around you, those you don't see, that you should see.
Movie Review: London's Underground UnderDogs get their day
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read many reviews appropriately commenting on the wonderful performance of Audrey Tautou as Turkish Immigrant Senay in Stephen Frears' "Dirty Pretty Things", but I haven't seen a comparable amount of words praising the tight, believable script and the wonderfully noble performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor as Okwe, a Doctor from Lagos on the run from authorities for reasons that are not revealed until well into the final act. My favorite movies ares ones with strong leading characters who act with heroic nobleness. I get an absolute thrill watching Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, or Humphrey Bogard as Rick Blaine, forcing Ilsa to get on that plane out of Casablanca because he loves her and knows there will be hell to pay to take any other course. I love it when Indiana Jones is secretly watching the child slaves in "Temple of Doom" and he is just so outraged that without thinking he plunks a guard with a rock.
Okwe is such a character. He is a man of principles, working shoulder to shoulder with desperate people in a world without principles. His status as an illegal alien makes it impossible for him to even think about working as a Doctor. So to make ends meet he works two menial jobs. He drives a cab for a company with other drivers who routinely stop him in the back room to get treatment for their gonorrhea. At his other job he works as night porter at the kind of hotel that has an hourly rate to accommodate the prostitutes who bring their work to these rooms.
Okwe is the kind of man who plays chess and engages in deep, meaningful conversations for fun. His friend Guo Yi works at the hospital morgue, loses to Okwe in chess, and procures antibiotics for all the cases of the drip back at the cab company.
This movie also has several characters who see nothing wrong with exploiting the perpetually scared immigrants. Two different characters force desperate young women into having sex rather than being reported to Immigration, and in this movie these coerced rapes are just tips of the seedy iceburg underbelly.
The way the movie progresses was uplifting to me, though, although it would be too much of a spoiler to say why. By the end I felt that the noble characters had escaped with their self-respect intact, and the two scumbags had received comeuppances of a painful sort.
The cinematography was reminiscent of Tautou's other famous film, Amelie. If you like watching movies about characters that you can care about, I recommend Dirty Pretty Things highly.
Movie Review: The Underside of Immigrant Life
Summary: 5 Stars
Dirty Pretty Things is about the world of refugees and illegal immigrants in London. All the major cities of Europe are where the refugees of the Africa and third world European and Asian third world countries head towards. Like in America, they drift towards the jobs that no one else wants.
Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) drives cabs during the days and is the night clerk for a tourist hotel at night. Okwe is a doctor from Lagos. He is a political fugitive and was framed for the murder of his wife. He is sharing a flat with one of the maids, Senay (Audrey Tautou). She is a refugee from Turkey. Her hope is to eventually immigrate to New York City.
One night the hotel hooker, Juliette (Sophie Okonedo) reports to Okwe an overflowing toilet in the room that she just used. Okwe goes to the room and dislodges a human heart from the toilet. He report it to the hotel manager Senior Juan (Sergi Lopez). But he is not too concerned over it.
Complications begin to occur. First immigration goes to Senay's apartment and finds evidence that she might be working. That night they go to the hotel but Okwe is able to warn her. Now she must find another job. When Okwe goes to pick up her final pay from the hotel, he runs into a Somolian man and his son in the manager's office. The son has an infected wound from a kidney removal. Okwe puts it all together that the manager is in the black market organ business.
With immigration after her, Senay cannot get a job and agrees to sell her kidney for a passport. Okwe agrees to perform the operation for a passport for himself. But he has something more in mind.
This is a film of unusual insight and passion. This is a great film that shows what immigrants must do to have a better life. What it really shows is that the people who prey on the immigrants are their own.
Both Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou give compelling performances and director Stephen Frears gives up one of his truly personal films that demands to be seen.
DVD EXTRA: 6 minute making of featurette.
Movie Review: The horrible choices some illegal immigrants have to make
Summary: 5 Stars
Illegal immigration is a serious worldwide problem. And this British film explores the complex and very difficult life of those who live their lives in this shadow world. To say that they are exploited is to phrase their dilemma too lightly. Their lives are horrible and they are often forced into making choices that no human being should have to make.
Chiwetel Ejiofor, an Afro-British actor shines in the role of Okwe, an Nigerian immigrant living in London. He's been trained as a doctor and once practiced his trade in Laos. But, as we learn during the course of the film, a tragedy caused him to leave that country and run for his life. And so, now, by day he drives a cab and by night he works as a hotel porter. In order to stay awake he chews the African drug that looks like grass. And when he needs to sleep, a chambermaid, Senay, played by Audrey Tautou, an illegal immigrant from Turkey, lets him sleep in her apartment.
One night, while trying to fix an overflowing commode, he discovers a body part in the toilet. This leads him on a search to find out what is going on. His discovery is chilling and it drives the plot as Senay is exploited by the owner of a clothing factory and makes a difficult decision in order to get a passport and flee to America. Sergi Lopez plays the bad guy who runs an illegal business that preys on the desperation of the illegals. However, the twists and turns of the plot lets justice prevail in the end.
At first I found it difficult to understand the British accents, but eventually I was able to relax and get into the story. As each detail emerged I developed a sense of empathy for the plight of these immigrants which deepened as the horror of their situtation became clear. All the acting was authentic and excellent, especially by the bad guy. And the London setting could have been any city in the world.
This is a very modern story. It's not pretty. And rather dirty. Hence, the excellent title.
Movie Review: Director plus Cast equals Magnificent Film
Summary: 5 Stars
Stephen Frears has given us some very fine films ('My Beautiful Laundrette', 'The Grifters', 'Dangerous Laisons' among others of a broad spectrum of types) and though these were all excellent films, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS is his best work to date. Simply stated, the story is an inside view of how a group of immigrants (mostly illegal) in London survive, having escaped their home country for promise of a better life and yet not really finding it in the threat of living sub rosa in the underbelly of London. Okwe (Chiwetel Eijiofor in an amazingly sensitive portrayal) has immigrated from Nigeria where he was a physician mistakenly accused of killing his wife but now works as a taxi driver and a hotel clerk just to survive. He ends up rooming with a hotel maid Senay (the always impressive Audrey Tautou as a Turkish immigrant) and with her assistance discovers a black market operation where human organs are obtained from desperate immigrants and sold to 'respectable' physicians for transplants. In their attempt to avoid being deported by the police, Okwe and Senay join with hooker Juliette (Sophie Okonedo), morgue tender Guo Yi (Benedict Wong) and the all important doorman to the hotel, Ivan (Zlatki Busic) to trick the hotel manager Sneaky/Juan (Sergi Lopez), who masterminds the organ harvesting, into inadvertently aiding their escape to other countries to resolve their lives. Though the story alone is rich in character detail and interest, it is the underplayed vulnerability of the wonderful immigrants that captures our hearts and makes us examine the plight of this unappreciated 'underclass' of people who live on hope. A very sensitive, evocatively filmed, strange movie that packs a tremendous wallop. Highly recommended!