I've always doubt of films with an international cast speaking in English. A multi-accent approach that should be sufficient reason to keep anyone away from the idea of joining the Brussels euro-bureaucrats. In this case however this approach is totally justified. The film is about immigrants to the UK, "aliens" searching for a better life at any cost. How much are human beings prepared to pay for escaping injustice, poverty or a repressive society? Or are they escaping from something else and their aim to live in an apparent "free world" totally misdirected? Isn't this new Home to some extent just a milder version of the same corrupted world and the bleak poor quality of life they believe to have left behind?
Stephan Frears takes a straight, almost dead-pan approach to the styling of the film making it more like a docu-drama, a journalistic approach which seems totally appropriate to the story and its characters. To "stylised" the film is a manner more appropriate when filming Les Liaisons Dangereous. In the case of Dirty Pretty Things we're closer to Frears roots when telling small local stories of immigrations and marginal lives. There are however touches of corrosive humour in the characters and situations. It reminded me of Lindsay Anderson' Britannia Hospital or O'Lucky man, certainly in the description of a sad and rather hostile Britain where the unbelievable can happen but also in the changes of pace from drama to almost surreal situation comedy.
It is great to see a British film that deal with a current problem and not with east-end gangster boys , adaptation of Jane Austen novels or false descriptions of Notting Hill Gate. The acting is also excellent, with sweet "Amelie" Tatou leaving Montmatre well behind and Chiwetel Ejiofor giving a subtle but effective performance although the character is sometimes a bit too good to be true.
What I did like best is that there is no final moralising with the exception of the fact that Sergi Lopez, the organ selling ring leader, get what he deserves. Both characters get away with their intentions, and rightly or wrongly they leave us to start what they believe to be a better life.
I wish them well.
Stephan Frears takes a straight, almost dead-pan approach to the styling of the film making it more like a docu-drama, a journalistic approach which seems totally appropriate to the story and its characters. To "stylised" the film is a manner more appropriate when filming Les Liaisons Dangereous. In the case of Dirty Pretty Things we're closer to Frears roots when telling small local stories of immigrations and marginal lives. There are however touches of corrosive humour in the characters and situations. It reminded me of Lindsay Anderson' Britannia Hospital or O'Lucky man, certainly in the description of a sad and rather hostile Britain where the unbelievable can happen but also in the changes of pace from drama to almost surreal situation comedy.
It is great to see a British film that deal with a current problem and not with east-end gangster boys , adaptation of Jane Austen novels or false descriptions of Notting Hill Gate. The acting is also excellent, with sweet "Amelie" Tatou leaving Montmatre well behind and Chiwetel Ejiofor giving a subtle but effective performance although the character is sometimes a bit too good to be true.
What I did like best is that there is no final moralising with the exception of the fact that Sergi Lopez, the organ selling ring leader, get what he deserves. Both characters get away with their intentions, and rightly or wrongly they leave us to start what they believe to be a better life.
I wish them well.