Cinema Tuesdays Review

Everything has a price. In the new film, Dirty Pretty Things by Stephen Frears, the cost for cheap hotel rooms, inexpensive clothes, and the rock bottom price of a service economy is higher for some than others.

Frears is known for his gritty view of life and this film certainly fills that expectation. His first well known film, The Grifters is populated with characters so despicable that no one would miss them if he dropped them off the edge of the world. And while Frears’ second production, Dangerous Liaisons, had at least a few human beings, beautiful scenery and costumes - the focus of the drama is on the reptilian antics of Glenn Close and John Malkovich.

Dirty Pretty Things is set in London, but please don’t expect a traditional view of this world capital. Not one traditional British character is forthcoming. It is as if Frears picks up a large rock and shows us the life teeming underneath. We see a side of life that exists everywhere that most people would rather not confront. This layer of humanity is populated with the resources that make an affordable and pleasant life possible for the rest of us; in short this film is about jobs…dirty, ugly, and dead-end jobs that make our current society work. This sub-strata is based on immigrants too poor, uneducated, and illegal to stand up for their rights. Here we come across Okwe, a character played brilliantly by newcomer Chiwetel Ejiofor. Hard-working, quiet, and determined, he makes the ideal worker in this world of disposable labor, but Okwe has a secret and as we see him leave one job to go to the next his knowledge of medicine spills out, exposing one of the great ironies of this film. Britain is one of the best places to immigrate to, because of the social services - like free medical care. The players in this film may live in the land of no medical bills, but they can’t expose their illegal status by going to a hospital, no matter how ill they become; it is either survive or be deported.

By day Okwe drives a cab, by night he is the desk clerk of a third rate London hotel. It is at this job we meet the woman he sub-rents a room from. Senay a Turkish chambermaid, is played by the French actress, Audrey Tautou. She is on the path to legal immigration, but jeopardizes her status by working. She also arouses the suspicions of the Muslim community by renting her room to a stranger. Hotels are filled with strangers and Okwe discovers more than he bargained for when he finds a human heart clogging one of the hotel toilets. This leads us to the shadowy world of crime that exists hand in hand with our normal existence. Finding a path that treads on no one is difficult enough, Okwe’s quiet life is further complicated by his doctor’s oath to help those in physical need. Dirty Pretty Things is in equal parts mystery, social commentary, and high drama. Is the quiet, resourceful Okwe smart enough to extricate himself and his friends from the cesspool they find themselves in without alerting the authorities? And yes, director Frear has a gritty character included, one of his nastiest yet.

I love movies that don’t telegraph their endings and in this area Pretty Dirty Things excels. The acting is brilliant and the cinematography is haunting, giving us a real feel for the desperate lives that exist beneath our middle class blinders. Powerful stuff.

The old saying is, you can’t judge a book by its cover, and this certainly applies to the cover of this new DVD release. A close up of Audrey Tautou looking confidently at us over her bare shoulder, combined with the title of this film and the mind…well, the male mind boggles. The DVD includes a commentary track with the director and a behind the scenes special.

4/22/04

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