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A romantic thriller/existential commentary, Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty
Things takes the viewer on a thrilling yet chilly ride through London’s
seedier side of capitalism and immigrant oppression. Newcomer Chiwetel
Ejiofor is Okwe, a Nigerian illegal refugee existing in the nonexistent,
unofficial cracks of official worlds only on the threads of his two jobs
and memories, or rather haunts, of his past life as a doctor and family
man in Nigeria. Soon into the start of the film Okwe is unwittingly exposed
to the dirt that is inevitably found within the little cracks of a bustling
crossroads city containing a neglected world of illegal immigrants struggling
to survive. When his night job at a crappy hotel patroned by the night
crawlers of London requires him to unstop a toilet, he stumbles upon
an underground organ ring that trades identities and passports for immigrant
kidneys.
The story quickly takes the route of a thriller as Okwe strategizes
to live and uphold his morals in a dirty yet aggressively tempting world.
His love interest is Audrey Tatou’s Senay, a Turkish Muslim applying
for asylum in the UK while being abused by employers and pursued by immigration
officers. Senay considers the deal that would give her supposed “freedom” in
a passport as Okwe tries to convince her that her insides, physical and
psychological, are too high of a price. Our hearts race with Okwe and
Senay as we wonder if they will survive the power plays of the “system” in
a nasty game of life much like the chess that is featured in the film
as Okwe’s favored pastime. Frears actually gives us a hint of the film’s
metaphorical subject matter with one of Okwe’s first lines “I am here
to rescue those who have been let down by the system.” He tries to rescue
those who not only have been let down by the system but also those who
do not actually exist within the system.
Ejiofor's leading black male presence in this mainstream, semi art-house
film is amazing, not only because of the status quo lack of presence
black men usually have in films such as this but also because his performance
is quite simply brilliant. As chills go up and down the viewers' spine
with everything Okwe experiences in such a dirty little world, Ejiofor's
presence
is precise and comforting in a way. Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowshi's production
design and Nathan Larson's music are perfectly medical, nonemotional
and cold, a dramatic polarity against a subject matter that teeters on
the edge of frightening, sober empathetic emotion for those who go through
stories similar to this in an immigrant reality. |
