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84 out of 92 people found the following review useful: An unflinching look at society's expendables..., 2 August 2003 Author: (ilpintl)
`Dirty Pretty Things', Stephen Frears' latest film played last year in Europe, but the North American opportunity to see it only came yesterday. Much buzz, fortunately all merited, preceded it: an amazing Nigerian actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor, already acclaimed for his stage performances, makes his big-screen debut, while Audrey Tatou, the impossibly wide-eyed kook from 2001's `Amelie', tackles her first English-language movie role.Frears' film details the story of those faceless, nameless human beings of a variety of ethnicities, who, for a multitude of reasons--all marked by desperation--sneak into England. Then, until they wangle a way of getting a British passport, they lead the hunted, humiliating lives of the illegal immigrant. The Nigerian Okwe is one such person: a pathologist in his home country, he is reduced to driving cabs by day and moonlighting as the sole front-desk worker in a London hotel by night. During the day, he grabs a couple of hours of sleep on the couch of a Turkish co-worker, a hotel maid named Senay, played by Audrey Tatou. As in most hotels in these straitened times, the night staff deals with the usual sordid emergencies that arise when the nocturnal creatures of the city are on the prowl. Prostitution and drugs are routine phenomena, but when he finds a human heart clogging a toilet in one of the rooms, Okwe realizes that something far more sinister is afoot.For the illegal immigrants portrayed in the film, it is an ongoing struggle to hold onto some semblance of integrity, humanity, and dignity, as the Society around them exploits and hounds them mercilessly, safe in the knowledge that nothing would be reported to the authorities. Each character makes more compromises and greater sacrifices, all for freedom, which as the tagline of the film sums up, comes at a price. Senay is a hair's breadth away from getting her residency papers, when she runs afoul of the law and has to go on the lam to avoid deportation. Okwe, the cause of her problems, feels duty-bound to see that she remains safe. But by persisting in his efforts to unravel the mystery of the heart in the toilet, he becomes increasingly exposed to those who would harm him and Senay.Interestingly, though this film is set in London, none of the main characters is English: there's Juliette, an ironically-named feisty West Indian hooker who plies her trade in the hotel; Ivan, the Russian doorman; Senor Juan or `Sneaky', another hotel employee who makes use of the hotel for his own money-making schemes; Gou Yi, a Chinese night porter in a morgue; a motley collection of Somali, Nigerian, and Kenyan men who work at the cab company, and the South Asian owner of a sweatshop. Even the Immigration inspectors who make the dreaded surprise checks for illegal aliens are of color, but they have been elevated into a privileged stratum of society by their passports. These people alternately help each other and prey on each other for another person's frailty is always a source of profit; while a person with knowledge of one's past is someone to be feared. The London we see through their eyes is unrecognizable--squalid, begrimed, crowded, sleazy, perilous--not at all the gleaming promised land of immigrant fantasies.Part anthropological documentary, part thriller, and part tentative, unlikely love story, this film keeps one riveted throughout. The unfortunates in the film live by their wits and survive by hanging on to their senses of humor. But as one degrading or dehumanizing experience piles itself atop another, you see them question the worth of the Holy Grail that is the British passport. However as there is no going back, they are forced to continue. Every now and then, they find it in themselves to hit back, making you want to applaud their diffident, costly bravery.The film belongs to the lead pair. Ejiofor, with his expressive dark eyes and handsome face, registers every affront to his humanity; he inhabits the character of Okwe completely and takes us along on the bleak, dangerous journey that Okwe is forced into. Likewise, Tatou breaks our hearts as she is exploited time and again; she is an actress of such luminous transparency and vulnerability that one empathizes with every tribulation of Senay's. This is a far more dramatically demanding role than `Amelie' and Tatou is up to its challenges. Sergi Lopez, who's star-making turn in the French film `With A Friend like Harry' did not go unnoticed in North America, has created a charming whisky-guzzling monster in Senor Juan. Juan is the ultimate amoral opportunist, a Brylcreemed, Mercedes-driving vulture, and Lopez does not shy away from showing himself at his worst. Benedict Wong and Sophie Okonedo are first-rate, too, as the philosophical chess-playing morgue-worker buddy of Okwe and Juliette the rebellious prostitute respectively.`Dirty Pretty Things', brilliantly written by Steve Knight, maintains its unpredictability right up to its surprise ending. Stephen Frears--no stranger to the seamy side of human nature (`My Beautiful Launderette', `Dangerous Liaisons', `The Grifters' being cases in point)--has crafted the film with delicacy and intelligence. A lesser director might have turned it into a sentimental morass, but Frears, with an unerring sense for a good story, abstains from making his characters too noble, too courageous, or too upstanding, rendering them altogether human and memorable.
49 out of 59 people found the following review useful: Second class citizens, 10 August 2003 Author: jotix100 from New York
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This is not a film for those without a strong heart, as it shows in a very real way what goes on among the desperate people of third world countries living illegally in London. It shows what desperation can do to a human being in order to survive.Stephen Frears is a fearless director. Most of the work he has done stands behind him as a statement to his craft. He is working here on a screen play by Steve Knight. It is a story about what happens to people that must go to a foreign country in order to survive and try to make a living in the worst possible circumstances, just to help the ones they leave behind. In this case, the people that are trying to better themselves, as it's the case in the film, get much more of what they've bargained for.The revelation in this picture is Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is just brilliant as Okwe, the illegal immigrant at the center of the story. He is a decent man who finds himself amongst unscrupulous people behind the sordid operation that goes on in the Baltic Hotel. This is an actor who can carry the picture; he is a natural. Mr. Ejiofor has the unfortunate claim of not having a name or isn't a "star" by Hollywood's standard. Just imagine what a Denzel Washington, or a Samuel L. Jackson would have earned by making this movie!Equally fabulous is Sergi Lopez, the man behind the dirty things going on in the hotel. His Senor Juan is, without a doubt, one of creepiest individuals in films in a while. He is a repulsive man who is "transformed" at the end, through no wish of his own. Mr. Lopez who has appeared in several films in his native Spain and in France is a chameleon. He goes from one picture to the next never duplicating the work he has done on the previous screen appearance. He is always an asset to any film.The rest of the cast is very good too. Audrey Tautou as Semay, the Turkish immigrant that shares her flat with Okwe is used very effectively by the director. Gone are the cute excesses of Amelie. Another notable presence is Sophie Okoneko as a prostitute with the heart in the right place.The end of the film seems to prove there's justice in the world after all. The same system that creates a living hell for Okwe and Semay while they are underground gives them new identities to face a better future somewhere else.
40 out of 47 people found the following review useful: Worth seeing, 20 November 2002 Author: Dubescfan (keithm@eircom.net)
A thoroughly engaging film which I would have no hesitation in recommending. Other reviewers have given away the major elements of the plot which may mean that you may find that it takes time to "cut to the chase" if you read the comments here before you see it. You are better off seeing this film "cold" knowing neither the plot nor the players. It does tend to get a bit goarey towards the end, but not without reason. A well written, superbly acted (especially by the two leads) and expertly directed work that makes you continue to believe that cinema can still be political and make important points without hitting you over the head with a blunt instrument. My only minor crib would be the accents which can be difficult to decipher or in Tatou's case slightly off (her character is supposed to be Turkish but the accent is more Eastern European).
55 out of 80 people found the following review useful: Dirty Pretty Things - A poetic film !, 16 September 2004 Author: MissElmaz from Stockholm, Sweden
First off I want to say that I'm not going to write about neither the plot nor the contents of this film, while it's rather unnecessary.The best way to describe "Dirty pretty things", is in my opinion, that it is like a beautiful poem. It flows easily and because of the fact that the cast are such good actors/actresses, almost every scene in the film affects you in some way.This is certainly not another Hollywood flick, because of the fact that it is so realistic. At times you actually forget that you are watching a film.Chiwetel Ejiofor, Audrey Tautou, Sergi López and the rest of the brilliant cast were new to me but I am going to keep following their careers, as I am hopeful that they will rise and get recognized for the great actors that they are.I strongly recommend this film, for it is most certainly like a breath of fresh air in the otherwise monotonous movie jungle...I easily give this film a 9 out of 10.
40 out of 59 people found the following review useful: Subtle, 29 November 2004 Author: jfxobrien from NY, NY
Who on earth wrote the last commentary? While I might agree that the movie appears 'preachy' compared with typical Hollywood crap which is incapable of analysis, this movie portrays non-Americans in a non-American world. It is subtle, entertaining, excels with its dark humor, and is an accurate portrayal of what immigrants suffer - not only in London, but around the globe.What on earth prompted the terrorist comment also? Sheesh.I suggest that this movie deserves deeper reflection, is not preachy like a Michael Moore, and goes about its business subtly and intelligently. A pleasure to watch.
19 out of 20 people found the following review useful: A Gritty View of London, 16 March 2005 Author: nycritic
Organ trafficking is the central theme of this overlooked great movie by Stephen Frears which received little noise when it came back in theatres in 2003 but managed to receive an Oscar nod for Original Screenplay. While this might not sound like the stuff that makes movies, Frears creates a visually effective thriller about the constant state of anxiety and exploitation in which immigrants with no papers must go through in order to survive.This is the reality as seen through the eyes of Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Senay (Audrey Tatou) who work in a seedy hotel under the smarmy and vaguely psychotic supervision of appropriately named Sneaky (Sergi Lopez). Both are in constant fear of being discovered by immigration agents who pop up at the most inopportune moments, and to top this all, it seems the hotel where they work in is being the focus of something quite dirty; when Okwe makes a grisly discovery in a toilet after a call girl (recently Oscar-nominated Sophie Okonedo), he is blackmailed into participating in the illegal plot he uncovers, which later threatens to overcome Senay as she succumbs to the pressure of legalizing her papers.Nice pacing, occasional dark humor brought in from time to time, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS never goes overboard with flashy chase sequences or explosions or implausible villains, but benefits from a grimier yet equally intense approach that conveys its message of the helplessness marginalized immigrants feel in a foreign country, compounded by the determination to survive at all costs, even when the situation seems grim.
29 out of 40 people found the following review useful: Toronto Film Festival favorite, 10 January 2003 Author: Art Snob from Rochester, NY USA
Among the 18 non-documentary films that I saw at last year's Toronto Film Festival, this new Stephen Frears offering was my favorite. It isn't often that a cutting-edge foreign director who's taken a dip in Hollywood waters can ever recapture the style and flair that got him noticed by Hollywood in the first place, but it would seem that French actress Audrey Tatou is a good-luck charm for a director attempting to perform such a feat. 2001 festival winner AMELIE resurrected Jean-Pierre Jeunet from the wreckage of ALIEN RESURRECTION, and now, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS makes for a supremely satisfying return to Frears' glory year of 1987, when he came out with the `real London' back-to-back art house successes that were SAMMY AND ROSIE GET LAID and PRICK UP YOUR EARS. Frears was honored with a retrospective at the festival in 2000, and if tributes like these can provoke similar return-to-form efforts from other directors ... I can sure suggest some names!I have only two minor cavils with the film. One is with Tatou being cast as an illegally-working Turkish immigrant in London. Only the most culturally-illiterate of viewers could ever buy her as being Turkish (she only makes a token effort at the accent). But once you get past this minor annoyance, her performance is otherwise excellent and a savvy career choice. (Nothing like a trip to all-too-real London to avoid becoming over-identified with fantasyland Paris!) The other is with the morality of the lead character, a former Nigerian doctor known only as `Okwe,' who's on the lam from a crime he was framed for after his medical ethics clashed with the wishes of state authorities. It's a great, compelling performance from unknown-in-America Chiwetel Ejiofor -- one that's sure to bring him plenty of North American roles - but in retrospect, his character is just a little TOO morally upstanding to be fully credible.The film deals with a compelling subject - the hand-to-mouth existence eked out by the huge numbers of illegal immigrants (and illegally-working immigrants) who do all of the bottom-rung work that nobody else wants to do in a teeming western metropolis. Okwe has two jobs that leave him next to no time for any kind of personal life -- a daytime cab driver and graveyard shift hotel night porter. He tries to resist letting anyone know that he's really a doctor, but his cab boss knows, and this forces him to maintain some low-level ties to the medical community. Later, some detective work at the hotel leads to him discovering a black-market operation in human organs being run by his hotel boss.As you can probably surmise, another painful medical moment of truth looms in the doctor's future following this discovery. I don't want to spoil anything, but if you've ever been disappointed by a film where the payoff wasn't worthy of the setup (and who hasn't?), you can rest assured that DIRTY PRETTY THINGS is definitely NOT one of these cases. The final stages of the story arc are VERY reminiscent of a certain Hollywood classic, but I'll leave it to the professional critics to do the spoiling.The casting of the movie is superb ... the first question from the audience for Frears following the screening was `Where did you get all of those fantastic actors?' Normally, such generic audience questions elicit groans, but in THIS case, it seemed like a perfectly legitimate inquiry. Besides Ejiofor and Tatou, there's also Sergi Lopez in his first English language role (following previous French festival hits AN AFFAIR OF LOVE and WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY) as Okwe's hotel boss. Oozing the kind of ersatz charm that you love to hate, he's great as a scoundrel who's convinced himself that he's doing everyone involved in his racket a favor. Supporting players Sophie Oknonedo as a prostitute doing regular business at the hotel and Benedict Wong as Okwe's mortician friend provide some great comic relief to the often grim and tense proceedings. Add in more colorful extras than you'd find in a Guy Ritchie movie (with BRITISH Brits existing strictly as peripheral characters) to flesh out Steve Knight's great script and you've got a crowd-pleasing winner.The presence of the Miramax banner put me on high `tampering alert' when watching the movie, but all I saw was vintage Frears. And he claimed during the Q&A that this is HIS movie ... `any mistakes you see on the screen are mine' were his words. The film was well-placed in the `Masters' Program at the festival and is one to definitely be looking for in commercial release. It SCREAMS for a Hispanic American remake . much more so than EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN ever did.
27 out of 37 people found the following review useful: An Urban Legend About the Socially Excluded Immigrants in London, 15 September 2004 Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In London, the Nigerian illegal immigrant and former doctor Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) works as cab driver along the day and in the front desk of a hotel managed by Juan 'Sneaky' (Sergi López) in the graveyard shift. He shares a couch in the small flat of the Turkish illegal immigrant Senay (Audrey Tautou), who also works in the hotel as maiden. One night, the Londoner prostitute Juliette (Sophie Okonedo) asks Okwe to fix the toilet of room 510, where she 'works', and he finds a human heart obstructing it. Okwe's further investigation discloses an invisible world of traffic of human organs of illegal immigrants in London. This excellent movie has a great screenplay about the urban legend of traffic of organs of the socially excluded immigrants in London. Just as a comparison, in Brazil, thousands of children of the lower classes vanish every year. The urban legend tells that they were adopted overseas or were used in the illegal traffic of human organs, but these stories are only rumor in Internet. Therefore, this theme in an excellent script is very attractive. Stephen Frears is one of the greatest directors of the cinema history and his movies are synonym of quality. The great surprise for me was the international cast, leaded by the unknown Chiwetel Ejiofor, followed by the excellent Audrey 'Amélie Poulain' Tautou and Sergi 'Harry' López , and the also unknown Sophie Okonedo, all of them with excellent performances. 'Dirty Pretty Things' is a highly recommended film. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): 'Coisas Belas e Sujas' (Pretty and Dirty Things')
28 out of 40 people found the following review useful: You wouldn't believe how some people will degrade themselves to survive..., 31 May 2005 Author: Howlin Wolf from Oldham, Gtr Manchester, England.
... I have to be honest and say that before I sat down to watch, I hadn't given much thought to the subject, myself. Maybe it's the suburban boy in me. Often you don't notice the true depths of depravity to be found in most cities unless you actively go looking for it.This happens to be about the underbelly of London; and what practises are reputed to - and may or may not - go on there. In this particular treatment, such activities are allowed to continue because the people caught up in them aren't citizens. 'Developed' society prefers to deny them a workable route of admittance for many of their circumstances;, so the best attitude seems to be to ignore how they have to live until such time as they go away. Of course, the logical outcome of such a way of thinking is a marked increase in illegal/immoral activity; but somehow the people who wish to turn a blind eye can't understand that eventually the overall effects will begin to seep onto THEIR doorstep... You do indeed tend to reap what you sow.For those lucky enough to be ignorant of the sorts of happenings that take place on the streets, one can only say that this film is an eye-opener. Too often we walk around blind to the foreign nationals who do a lot of our menial jobs for us. It's not expected that we take notice of our cab drivers, chamber-maids, and yes; even our sex-slaves. Pity we don't pay more attention, because that often isn't ALL they do; and the burden of truth should heap shame on civilisation as a whole. These issues are handled brilliantly in "Dirty Pretty Things" by all of the creative team involved. See it to humble yourselves with this sobering reminder: The face you slap on your way up may belong to the same owner of the feet you're kissing at your lowest ebb.
17 out of 23 people found the following review useful: Flawed but impressive, 9 August 2004 Author: TrevorAclea from London, England
Dirty Pretty Things was at once a pleasant surprise and a slight disappointment. It stands head and shoulders above the wreckage of most recent Britflicks, but it still never quite reaches the heights. Part of the problem is that the background is the story, leaving us with an at times slight narrative and a very predictable final twist that seems very much like one of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Very Much as We Expected (the moment Chiwetel Ejiofor stops Sergi Lopez's hands from shaking you know exactly what's coming).That said, it's still a worthwhile trip. Unlike most British films, and London ones in particular, it actually uses the city as a character - in this case the hidden city. We see virtually no ordinary British citizens. Instead the film is inhabited by the illegal immigrants who do the dirty jobs that no-one else wants, the lead character a Nigerian doctor who works double-shifts as taxi driver and hotel porter and rents a couch in Turkish maid Audrey Tatou's couch on a timeshare basis. This milieu is superbly captured, and you get a sense of a world not so much hidden as ignored. Frears direction too is back to the power and drive of his early work after his recent flabby American entries, although he still can't resist caricaturing the Immigration officials - rather than the bored, disinterested and impersonal reality he's opted for cheap comic book villains that diminishes every scene they appear in. Similarly, he doesn't always keep a tight enough rein on some of the supporting performances, Sophie Okenedo in particular: she can be a much better actress, but here she's allowed to veer too much to stereotype and has a couple of awkward moments. Lopez too falls back on some of his overfamiliar mannerisms, although Ejiofor is quite superb in the lead, and his easygoing scenes with Benedict Wong's mortuary waste disposal technician are minor highlights.Nonetheless, with most British cinema so awful these days, this is definitely worth catching: a very good film even if it could have been even better.
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