Dirty Pretty Things

In London, the Nigerian illegal immigrant and former doctor Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) works as cab driver along the day and in the front desk of a hotel managed by Juan 'Sneaky' (Sergi López) in the graveyard shift. He shares a couch in the small flat of the Turkish illegal immigrant Senay (Audrey Tautou), who also works in the hotel as maiden. One night, the Londoner prostitute Juliette (Sophie Okonedo) asks Okwe to fix the toilet of room 510, where she 'works', and he finds a human heart obstructing it. Okwe's further investigation discloses an invisible world of traffic of human organs of illegal immigrants in London. This excellent movie has a great screenplay about the urban legend of traffic of organs of the socially excluded immigrants in London. Just as a comparison, in Brazil, thousands of children of the lower classes vanish every year. The urban legend tells that they were adopted overseas or were used in the illegal traffic of human organs, but these stories are only rumor in Internet. Therefore, this theme in an excellent script is very attractive. Stephen Frears is one of the greatest directors of the cinema history and his movies are synonym of quality. The great surprise for me was the international cast, leaded by the unknown Chiwetel Ejiofor, followed by the excellent Audrey 'Amélie Poulain' Tautou and Sergi 'Harry' López , and the also unknown Sophie Okonedo, all of them with excellent performances. 'Dirty Pretty Things' is a highly recommended film. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): 'Coisas Belas e Sujas' (Pretty and Dirty Things')

A thoroughly engaging film which I would have no hesitation in recommending. Other reviewers have given away the major elements of the plot which may mean that you may find that it takes time to "cut to the chase" if you read the comments here before you see it. You are better off seeing this film "cold" knowing neither the plot nor the players. It does tend to get a bit goarey towards the end, but not without reason. A well written, superbly acted (especially by the two leads) and expertly directed work that makes you continue to believe that cinema can still be political and make important points without hitting you over the head with a blunt instrument. My only minor crib would be the accents which can be difficult to decipher or in Tatou's case slightly off (her character is supposed to be Turkish but the accent is more Eastern European).

Stephen Frears is good at growing roses in unpromising surroundings, `My Beautiful Laundrette' being a good example. Here he tells the almost uplifting tale of Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a Nigerian doctor who has become an illegal immigrant to Britain, and his chaste relationship with a young virginal Turkish woman Senay (Audrey Tautou) whose aim is to join her sister in New York, where the policemen are on white horses and good jobs can be had for the asking . At the start of the film Okwe and Senjay are both working in the Baltic, an upmarket London hotel, he as the night desk clerk and she as a maid, sharing (by rotation) a tiny flat and doing their best to avoid the immigration police. Then one night Okwe discovers that the toilet of Room 510 is blocked with a human heart, and it seems that Sneaky the night manager who unaccountably drives a new Mercedes (Sergi Lopez) is deeply involved. Unfortunately he can't very well go to the cops, and Sneaky, when he finds out about Okwe's medical skills, tries to recruit him into the racket, which, without giving the game away, involves the sale of human organs. The squeamish are advised, by the way, to avert their eyes when the scalpels come out – even properly conducted surgery can be a bloody business.

The film is very much about the plight of immigrants, especially illegal ones, to richer countries, where they slot in to all those menial low paid jobs the citizens of those countries don't want to do. In one of the few really comic moments of the film the entire workforce of a clothing sweatshop vanish from the premises with well-practiced haste as immigration officials approach the premises. Okwe makes a little speech late in the move about he and his fellow illegals doing all that stuff you don't notice unless it's not done, like cleaning and rubbish disposal, but Frears refrains from preaching, for the most part. What he has done is to present their plight in a compassionate manner and evoked the atmosphere of fear and despair that surrounds them.

A film like this requires good acting and Chiwetel Ejiofor, a Londoner with Nigerian parents, is excellent as Owke the doctor turned night clerk. Owke maintains his dignity and the audience's sympathy throughout. He has been to New York, in fact has worked there as a doctor, but he does not try to shatter Senay's dream of the Promised Land. Audrey Tautou is typecast as a young innocent (`Amelie' and `The Spanish Apartment') and it's not hard to see her as a Turkish virgin, but she here handles the maturing of her character very adroitly. I also liked Sergi Lopez's Sneaky, who was just nasty enough when it would have been easy to descend into caricature. Lopez certainly is versatile; he made a plausible lover in `L' Liasion Pornographique' and a very believable villain in `Harry, He's Here to Help'.

Above all, Frears has evoked the atmosphere of the illegal immigrant sub-culture in an honest fashion. It may be that the opening up of the labour markets of Western Europe with the enlargement of the European Union will squeeze out the illegal ones – there will be fewer jobs for them, even of the most menial kind. The trade that Frears exposes may well get worse.

"Dirty Pretty Things," a film directed by Stephen Frears is not quite a thriller, romance or a drama, but it does manage to fit all three successfully.

An illegal immigrant in London (Chiwetel Ejiofor), working a day job as a cab driver and a hotel clerk in the Baltic Hotel at nights, discovers a human heart stuck in the bottom of a hotel room toilet one night and worries about what goes on behind the closed doors of his hotel. In the meantime, he develops a friendship with an immigrant woman from Turkey (Audrey Tatou ) who is also just trying to get by first as a maid in the hotel, then, as a seamstress in a sweatshop.

Acting by everybody, especially by two leads is wonderful. I am so glad to see Tatou in the part very different from her Amelie. The story is gripping; and we see London the way we have not seen it before and did not even know that London exists.

An engrossing human drama, stylish noir, social commentary, lives of immigrants, characters study - with the characters deep, human, and very real. No cheap pulling the strings, no manipulation. As a result -one of the best films of the last year.

And that ending.... Fans of "Lost in Translation" - watch "Dirty Pretty Things", and then we'll talk about what the good ending is.

... I have to be honest and say that before I sat down to watch, I hadn't given much thought to the subject, myself. Maybe it's the suburban boy in me. Often you don't notice the true depths of depravity to be found in most cities unless you actively go looking for it.

This happens to be about the underbelly of London; and what practises are reputed to - and may or may not - go on there. In this particular treatment, such activities are allowed to continue because the people caught up in them aren't citizens. 'Developed' society prefers to deny them a workable route of admittance for many of their circumstances;, so the best attitude seems to be to ignore how they have to live until such time as they go away. Of course, the logical outcome of such a way of thinking is a marked increase in illegal/immoral activity; but somehow the people who wish to turn a blind eye can't understand that eventually the overall effects will begin to seep onto THEIR doorstep... You do indeed tend to reap what you sow.

For those lucky enough to be ignorant of the sorts of happenings that take place on the streets, one can only say that this film is an eye-opener. Too often we walk around blind to the foreign nationals who do a lot of our menial jobs for us. It's not expected that we take notice of our cab drivers, chamber-maids, and yes; even our sex-slaves. Pity we don't pay more attention, because that often isn't ALL they do; and the burden of truth should heap shame on civilisation as a whole. These issues are handled brilliantly in "Dirty Pretty Things" by all of the creative team involved. See it to humble yourselves with this sobering reminder: The face you slap on your way up may belong to the same owner of the feet you're kissing at your lowest ebb.