Some things are too dangerous to keep secret
Dirty Pretty Things
Review by Alexa Moses
Written by Steven Knight
Directed by Stephen Frears
Nominally, Dirty Pretty Things is a genre film, sitting smack in the middle of the thriller category - if indeed that genre exists - although it's been called an urban thriller because it's set in gritty, grotty London, and a romantic thriller because there's a relationship in it. Yet writer Steven Knight, director Stephen Frears and the actors have done their work so well that Dirty Pretty Things is as much about the characters' struggle to forge lives in a grim underworld, as it is a gripping thriller.
Nigerian doctor Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is an illegal immigrant in London. He works shifts as a hotel porter and taxi driver, chewing coca leaves to keep himself awake. When he can, he snatches an hour of sleep on the sofa of the militantly virginal Senay (Audrey Tautou, who starred in Amelie), a Turkish Muslim working at the hotel as a maid. Then one graveyard shift, Okwe discovers something grisly in room 510 of the Baltic Hotel.
Behind Dirty Pretty Things is a clever, considered script from Knight, who is also a British television writer, novelist and the co-creator of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? He's created rounded characters who react in the unpredictable way that humans do, and the dialogue never jars. A series of canny twists keep the story rolling forward. The only part of the film that seemed slightly out of kilter was the love story. Although I saw how the leads were drawn together as friends, Okwe seemed more like a father-figure to Senay than a lover. Perhaps that was the point.
Stephen Frears's direction is rigorous. In the 1980s, Frears was the interpreter of multicultural Britain, with My Beautiful Laundrette and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, and Dirty Pretty Things harks back to these better films. With a deft touch, Frears makes the ugly underworld of great, grey London beautiful, and the beautiful gloss of a grand hotel strangely repulsive. Frears doesn't obscure the suspenseful story with clever-clever camera shots, musical syrup or cheap, loud shocks.
As Audrey Tautou is the famous actor, she gets the big pic on the movie poster, but Ejiofor's performance eclipses hers. The British actor brings a powerful dignity and reserve to Okwe, without the righteousness Denzel Washington would have brought to the character. Ejiofor's performance is the another reason this film works so well.
Not that Tautou isn't winning as the proud, vulnerable Senay. Although her accent slips occasionally, she's believable as an aspirational Muslim, and her mischievousness is the balance to Okwe's gravitas. Watch out for a brilliantly nasty, swaggering performance from Sergi Lopez as Sneaky, the gnomish, self-important receptionist in the hotel, as well as a saturnine turn from Benedict Wong as Okwe's mortuary attendant mate.
Dirty Pretty Things is a beautifully-crafted genre film that, with writer, director and actors working in counterpoint, transcends its genre.
Dirty Pretty Things
Directed by: Stephen Frears
- Chiwetel Ejiofor .... Okwe
- Kriss Dosanjh .... Asian businessman
- Israel Aduramo .... Mini cab driver
- Yemi Ajibade .... Mini cab driver (as Ade-Yemi Ajibade)
- Nizwar Karanj .... Mini cab driver
- Dhobi Oparei .... Mini cab driver (as Deobia Oparei)
- Jeffery Kissoon .... Cab Controller
- Zlatko Buric .... Ivan
- Audrey Tautou .... Senay
- Sophie Okonedo .... Juliette
- Sergi López .... Sneaky (Juan)
- Benedict Wong .... Guo Yi
- Kenan Hudaverdi .... Cafe owner
- Damon Younger .... Punter
- Paul Bhattacharjee .... Mohammed
Review by Fenella Kernebone
To survive in London, you have to find work, but if you’re an illegal immigrant, you’re options are truly limited. The people we meet in Dirty Pretty Things are the unknowns. They toil in sweat-shops, drive cabs, clean … do anything they can to survive.
Chiewetal Ejifor plays Okwe, a young Nigerian Doctor, hiding from his past and the immigration authorities. He works two jobs, as a taxi driver by day and night reception at a seedy hotel, managed by a predatory Sergei Lopez from Harry Is Here to Help fame. A friendship builds between Okwe and Senay, a cleaner at the hotel, played by Audrey Tatou, in a very different role from her mischievous character in Amelie.
When Okwe finds a human heart blocking the toilet of one of the hotel rooms, they become drawn into a shadowy, disturbing corner of urban London. He discovers that some people are prepared to go to great extremes in their pursuit for a better life and there will always be people ready to exploit them.
This is the latest effort from the Director of High Fidelity, Stephen Frears and while Dirty Pretty Things wraps up a little too conveniently for my liking, there is whole lot of warmth and humour in this film, even though it is such a sordid tale. Dirty Pretty Things is a small insight into what conditions might be like for those people forced to work under the radar.
MEGAN: 3.5
FENELLA: 3.5
JAIMIE: 3.5
Review by Andrew Pike 16/6/04
This is the latest film from British director, Stephen Frears - the man responsible for such quality productions as THE GRIFTERS, DANGEROUS LIAISONS, LIAM, HIGH FIDELITY, PRICK UP YOUR EARS and MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE. Quite a track record! Like the unpredictable director he is, he has immersed a strong and topical political statement about the exploitation of illegal immigrants as cheap labour in Britain today, inside a genre thriller that moves along at a cracking pace, holding our attention at every turn and keeping us in suspense over the fate of the "illegals" at the heart of the story.
In Frears's own words: "If you're after something that's fresh and original, it's not surprising that you end up in the immigrant community. It is new - it wasn't there when I was a child. It's where the biggest changes in British society - well, London society - are happening. That's what's going on in modern British politics."
Despite top billing being given to Audrey Tautou (best known for her leading role in AMELIE), the main character in DIRTY PRETTY THINGS is Okwe, a Nigerian immigrant on the run from a repressive regime, and struggling to make a living for himself as a minicab-driver and as a night clerk in the rather seedy Baltic Hotel in London. Okwe doesn't sleep much and his growing physical stress as he struggles to keep awake so that he can work day and night is part of the tension of the story. One night at the Baltic Hotel, he stumbles across something gruesome in one of the hotel rooms, and - having been trained as a doctor - he starts to ask questions which lead him into some tricky situations. His friend and ally is an Islamic woman from Turkey (played by Audrey Tautou), who eventually puts herself at risk to solve the problems they face.
In the leading role, Chiwetel Ejiofor is a very strong presence (much stronger, surprisingly, than Audrey Tautou). Best known as a stage actor, Ejiofor is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic art, and has won awards for his stage performances in London (including Romeo in a National Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet). At the age of 19, he appeared in Spielberg's AMISTAD and has made a couple of other minor screen appearances in British films before taking the lead in DIRTY PRETTY THINGS.
The story unfolds against a background of the seedier side of inner London. The location is atmospherically captured in brilliant camerawork from Chris Menges, once a highly respected documentary filmmaker, now best known as a top-ranking director of photography for films such as Neil Jordan's ANGEL, THE KILLING FIELDS and Sean Penn's THE PLEDGE. Menges has also directed his own films - most notably A WORLD APART in 1988.
The title, by the way, is not explained in the film, though one assumes it refers in some way to the "illegals". It derives directly from a story called "Hotels and Dirty Pretty Things" that the screenwriter, Stephen Knight, wrote about ten years earlier - not that this information helps us with the meaning of the title.
By the way, don't be put off by the film's MA rating. Although the story suggests that we might be in store for some grisly scenes, we never really see very much: Frears does allow for the squeamish amongst us in the audience. His British sensibilities are a long way from the aggressive violence of many mainstream American movies.
Dirty Pretty Things
Review by Jason Best
Some 17 years after "My Beautiful Laundrette", director Stephen Frears gives us another stunning cinematic portrait of London.
And it's not one that any tourist - or Hollywood studio - would recognise.
Frears' film focuses on the usually unseen world of the capital's illegal immigrants, the invisible people who keep its economy running smoothly.
Chiwetel Ejiofor's Nigerian exile Okwe is one such person. By day he drives a minicab; at night he's a porter in a hotel that's home to some shady goings-on.
When Okwe stumbles upon the hotel's dirty secret, he is placed in an impossible dilemma. A decent man, how can he do the right thing - given his precarious status - and still protect the people he cares about?
Scripted by first-time screenwriter Steve Knight (one of the creators, incidentally, of TV quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?), "Dirty Pretty Things" works on one level as a gripping urban thriller.
What lifts the film out of the generic rut, however, is its political intelligence and compassion.
Frears has these qualities in spades. Unsurprisingly, he brings the best out of an outstanding multinational cast.
Admittedly, it's a bit disconcerting at first to see "Amelie" star Audrey Tautou as a Turkish asylum seeker (Okwe's best friend), but her unaffected performance soon wins us over.
Sergi López as the hotel's ruthless, scheming head porter, and Sophie Okonedo as a street-smart hooker, are also impressive.
But it's Ejiofor's subtle, understated portrayal of the dignified Okwe that ultimately holds the film together.
"How come I've never seen you before?" asks one of the few native British characters in the film. "Because we are the people you never see," replies Okwe.
"Dirty Pretty Things" opens our eyes.
"A gripping thriller ... beautifully crafted ... Behind DIRTY PRETTY THINGS is a clever, considered script from Stephen Knight. ... He has created rounded characters who react in the unpredictable way that humans do, and the dialogue never jars. A series of canny twists keep the story rolling forward. ... Stephen Frear's direction is rigorous. In the 1980s, Frears was the interpreter of multicultural Britain, with MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE and SAMMY AND ROSE GET LAID, and DIRTY PRETTY THINGS harks back to these better films. With a deft touch, Frears makes the ugly underworld of great, grey London beautiful. "
Alexa Moses, Sydney Morning Herald
