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| Dirty Pretty Things is an exploration of morality, but set in a context of an immorality that is a part of our culture. Just because we choose not to see the things that go on in the world around us, does not mean that we don't share in the responsibility for allowing such things to continue. |
(2003) Film Review by Darrel Manson |
| This page was created on August 26, 2003
This page was last updated on
September 2, 2003
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| CREDITS |
|  Directed by Stephen Frears
Screenplay by Steve Knight
Audrey Tautou .... Senay
Sergi López .... Sneaky (Juan)
Chiwetel Ejiofor .... Okwe
Sophie Okonedo .... Juliette
Benedict Wong .... Guo Yi
Zlatko Buric .... Ivan
Kriss Dosanjh .... Asian businessman
Israel Aduramo .... Mini cab driver
Yemi Ajibade .... Mini cab driver
Nizwar Karanj .... Mini cab driver
Dhobi Oparei .... Mini cab driver
Jeffery Kissoon .... Cab Controller
Kenan Hudaverdi .... Cafe owner
Damon Younger .... Punter
Paul Bhattacharjee .... Mohammed
Produced by
Julie Goldstein .... executive producer
Robert Jones .... producer
Teresa Moneo .... executive producer
Allon Reich .... executive producer
Tracey Scoffield .... executive producer
Tracey Seaward .... producer
Paul Smith .... executive producer
David M. Thompson .... executive producer
Original Music by Nathan Larson and Christian Henson (additional music)
Cinematography by Chris Menges
Film Editing by Mick Audsley
MPAA: Rated R for sexual content, disturbing images and language.
Runtime: 107 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM, and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG |
| TRAILERS AND CLIPS |
| —Trailers, Photos |
| POSTER |
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Dirty Pretty Things
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| SYNOPSIS |
 Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a remarkably understated performance in director Stephen Frears's offbeat and gripping drama DIRTY PRETTY THINGS. Ejiofor stars as Okwe, a Nigerian who is trying to make a new life for himself in London, where he works
days as a taxi driver and nights as a hotel desk receptionist. When he discovers a human heart in a hotel-room bathroom, he cannot go to the police because he is an illegal alien with a mysterious past that he refuses to talk about. Suddenly he is thrust into the middle of a dangerous situation that threatens to have tragic results for him and those around him. French ingenue Audrey Tautou costars as a Turkish woman who has sought asylum in England, where she is allowed to live but not
work. But she must make money, so she works secretly while the government tries to catch her. Benedict Wong turns in a fine supporting performance as Guo Yi, a morgue employee who shares wise and humorous sayings with Okwe, and Sergi Lopez is absolutely chilling as the amorally opportunistic hotel manager. Frears directs the unusual proceedings with a deft hand, slowly revealing secrets that are as gruesome as they are poignant. |
Review by
DARREL MANSON
Pastor, Artesia Christian Church, Artesia, CA
http://netministries.org/see/churches/ch01198
Darrel has an incredible love and interest in the cinematic arts. His reviews usually include independent and significantly important film. |
 As the summer goes along, I've been a little disappointed with the films that are out. To be sure, Seabiscuit and Finding Nemo are wonderful
films and Pirates of the Caribbean is great fun, but there has been a lot of mediocrity this summer, and not much that truly engages the mind and challenges us. But now we have Dirty Pretty Things.
As Dirty Pretty Things opens, Okwe is at the airport asking people if they need a cab. Two people who were expecting to be met ask if they were sent for him. He replies that he is there to rescue those who the system has failed. As the film progresses, we wonder if that is what he will really be able to do.
 Set in London, Dirty Pretty Things is not about anyone English; it is about the underclass of immigrants, mostly illegal, whom the system is failing. They work hard. They
struggle to get by in a world that doesn't see them, doesn't want to be bothered by them, but is willing to exploit them in many ways. The characters are Nigerian, Turkish, Russian, Chinese, Spanish. They are Christians and Muslims and Buddhists and of no religion. They clean hotel rooms, drive cabs, open doors, and sell their bodies (in more ways than one.)
SPOILERS FOLLOW
 Okwe is struggling not only to survive, but to maintain his sense of dignity and morality. It is not easy. He is not a nothing that most people see him as. In Nigeria he was a doctor. He
meets people in England who need medical help, but are afraid to go to the medical system for fear of being discovered and deported. He steals drugs for them from a hospital. This is one of the ways we see him rescuing those the system has failed. Is he justified in committing this crime? If it is okay for him to do this, is it acceptable to take a kidney from a poor person who is willing to sell it for money or a passport in order to save a child who needs a kidney? Will he do it for
himself? Will he do it to get something for others?
END SPOILERS
Of course, Britain is not the only country with such an invisible underclass. I expect that nearly every culture has a group that can be easily exploited by threats of being revealed to the authorities. Every so often there will be a news story about a sweat shop filled with immigrants working off their passage, or of a truck full of smuggled immigrants dying in the heat. We may be indignant, but we know that there are others still being exploited that we never hear about.
One doesn't even need to be an immigrant to be part of that invisible subculture. Barbara Ehrenreich, in Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, tells of her sojourn through the low paying jobs that some people struggle to survive on. She worked at these jobs (waitress, hotel maid, house cleaning, big box retail employee) and tried to live on what they paid. It was never easy. We come across these people every day, yet we never really see them.
 Dirty Pretty Things is an exploration of morality, but set in a context of an immorality that is a part of our culture. Just because we choose not to see the things that go on in the world around us, does not mean that we don't share in the responsibility for allowing such things to continue.
There is much within our economic system that relies on such an underclass. Low wages (or illegal workers) keep the cost down for many things. We don't want to pay more, so we look the other way unless it becomes too obvious. We are part of the system that is failing those in need.
I don't approve of all the things that Okwe and others do in the film. But Okwe makes his choices not to benefit himself, but to take care of those who no one else takes care of. He takes care of those that we will not take care of -- or even be willing to see, because to see might make us care. |
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