One of the best films I saw last year, Dirty Pretty Things is a slow burning suspense thriller that deals with the very touchy subject of Illegal Immigrants. However rather than merely brush over the issue in a judgmental manner it takes the time to show life from the other side of the coin. Lets you get to know characters who want to work, rather than abuse the system, and highlights the gritty specifics of the hardships they are forced to endure.
The film tells 2 separate stories that are intertwined by a central romance. The first is that of a Nigerian immigrant named Okwe who is living illegally in England after fleeing his home country. Okwe spends every day working 2 jobs, by day he's a taxi driver and by night a porter at the Hotel that works as the center of the story. Being forced to work these 2 jobs is having an effect on Okwe's health and he's forced to chew raw caffein leaves in order to stay awake. One night at the hotel though, he discovers a human heart blocking one of the toilettes. Something which his status as an illegal immigrant prevents him from reporting, even after he discovers an illegal black market in human organs is being run from the hotel.
The second story deals with a Turkish refugee named Senay who works at the Hotel as a maid. Senay is in love with Okwe and so allows him to sleep at her apartment on the sofa, but this soon draws the attention of the immigration authorities who state that it's illegal for Senay to have anyone else live with her. However on searching her flat they find evidence of her job at the Hotel, and so she is forced to find another job at a sweat shop where she is subjected to sexual abuse from it's perverted owner.
Throughout the story both characters meet with difficulties as Okwe has to make some decisions that transcend legal and illegal. Moving into the area of deciding if his actions would be morally right. Yet it's Senay who has the most difficulties, trying to hide her love for Okwe and avoid the immigration authorities. By the time the abuse starts she gets close to breaking until she decides to just accept her situation until she can get her papers and move to America.
During all of this the quality of the acting makes the drama work. None of the important cast members give any theatrical, intentionally acting style of performances. Rather they keep their performances down to earth and subtle, which makes the characters more believable than they would have otherwise been.
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Amistad) plays Okwe, when I first reviewed it I described him as giving "a subtle and honest performance as a good man, plunged into horrible circumstances" and I stand by that statement. The character is a careful planner, a man who can keep a cool head under pressure. As such Ejifor imbues him with a broad range of emotions, ranging from fear, anger and even his love for Senay, yet he keeps these bubbling away under the surface in order to give the character an emotional intensity, that makes the scenes where he is forced to make a moral decision purely gripping.
However by far the most surprising performance was from Audrey Tautou (Amelie). Put simply this girl is emotion personified. She has the face of an angel, an angel trapped in hell. The looks of misery in her face when Okwe doesn't seem to be reciprocating her love were emotional enough. Yet when things get really bad the character turns to pure despair, and Tautou's physical performance makes sure that this is all genuinely emotional. The end result is a film that leaves a tear in everyone's eyes without resorting to a shameless tugging on the heart strings.
The 2 main stars have been supported well though. Sergi López (An Affair Of Love) gives a sneering, unsympathetic performance as the evil owner of the Hotel, and Sophie Okonedo (Mad Cows) gives a sympathetic performance as Juliette, the Hooker with a heart of gold. Yet by far the most impressive performance comes from Benedict Wong (Spy Game) who plays Guo Yi, Okwe's friend from the mortuary. As many know it's common for people who work in a mortuary to cope with humour, and this is what this character does. He is the character who offers words of wisdom but does it in a sarcastic way. Wong gets the sarcasm at just the right level, so that he can lighten the bleak nature of the film, without destroying the emotional resonance.
All of that combined with an amazing soundtrack that rapidly builds the suspense, and some nice cinematography make Dirty Pretty Things one of the top 5 films of last year. As well as one of the best British films that I've seen.
Language: Some Strong
Sex/Nudity: Some brief moderate, No Nudity.
Violence: One fairly graphic surgery sequence
Theme/Contents: Illegal immigrants, sexual abuse.
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