Dirty Pretty Things
Cast
Audrey Tautou .... Senay
Sergi L�pez .... Sneaky (Juan)
Chiwetel Ejiofor .... Okwe
Sophie Okonedo .... Juliette
Benedict Wong .... Guo Yi
Directed by
Stephen Frears
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
9/10. Dramas are the hardest genre of movies to rate. You can rate a comedy
based the number of times you laugh, or horror movies by how scary
they are. But there's not one definitive thing you can look at in
dramas. It has to have a mix of acting and whether it achieves what
it wants to accomplish. Dirty Pretty Things, by director Stephen
Frears (High Fidelity) has both. Audrey Tautou, star of the feel-good
Am�lie puts in an amazing job, but is shadowed by the work of
Chiwetel Ejiofor. He's simply outstanding.
Dirty Pretty Things is basically a more adult Fight Club. Both can be
considered uprisings (although this one is less extreme) about people
who are on a low rung of society. Both Tyler Durden and Okwe
(Ejiofor) give similar speeches, too. Basically, the people who are
low don't deserve to be there. Okwe is a doctor, yet has to have two
jobs. Senay (Tautou) is obviously more than her job is.
Okwe is an illegal Nigerian immigrant living in England. He works two
jobs, one as a taxi driver (which we never see him do) and one as a
hotel clerk (which we see him do often; much of the final part of the
movie takes place there. However, since nobody can know he's in the
country, he often bunks with Senay. She has some sort of government
program where she is funded by the government but cannot work. She
does sneak out to work, though. Dirty Pretty Things has something
that most movies now cannot do: have a strong platonic friendship
between a man and a woman, without turning it into a love story.
While looking in one of the rooms in the hotel, Okwe sees that a
toilet is overflowing. It turns out that what's clogging it is not
what you'd expect. That leads Okwe and Senay into an underworld of
London that neither of them wanted to be in.
What makes Dirty Pretty Things so great is the attention to detail of
the characters. It's rare these days to find a character that we not
only know about, but also actually care about. I felt for these
characters, these misfits. I couldn't feel that way about Tyler
Durden. Ejiofor gives such a subtle performance, it blew me away.
Tautou also put in a very good job. Also, Sergi Lopez, as Okwe's
boss, puts in an amazing job as the sinister, evil boss. It seemed
like it all came naturally to him, a little too much. If getting away
from the Hollywood, mainstream films is what you want this summer,
then your best bet is Dirty Pretty Things.
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rated R for sexual content, disturbing images and language.
Running time: 107 minutes
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