Harry here with the Stephen Frears directed English Speaking debut of Audrey Tautou, the amazing woman that dazzled audiences everywhere with AMELIE. This is the first word we've had on this film, and typically Frears does great work... it seems this is no different. Here is another film to get excited about. Here ya go...
Sometimes it's safer not to see what's clogging the toilet
I had the fortune of seeing a preview screening of director Stephen Frears' new film Dirty Pretty Things Tuesday night. The folks at Miramax treated the audience to one of New York City's older theaters in the East Village, complete with uncomfortable seats ad rickety arm rests. I know they're all about art house flicks, but come on! Couldn't spring for stadium seating?
A brief synopsis (with a few spoilers): Okwe (Chjwetel Ejifor), an illegal Nigerian immigrant and once-and-former surgeon forced to flee his homeland for a crime he did not commit, works two jobs, a taxi driver by day and concierge at a seedy London hotel by night. Without the means to secure an apartment, fellow hotel employee Juliette (Audrey Tautou) sublets him her couch. While unclogging a toilet in one of the hotel rooms, Okwe makes the mistake of removing the item and examining it. What he finds is sickening a healthy human heart, recently extracted. He proceeds to discover an organ-for-passport scam being perpetrated by the hotel general manager aptly named Sneaky (Sergi Lopez). When Sneaky learns of Okwe's true identity, he presents our toilet-plunging hero with a moral dilemma: join-up as resident surgeon and get sought-after legal status or remain on the run from the English equivalent of the INS.
Ejifort's Okwe is a complex character that is beautifully acted. Though the character is a bit too much of a boy-scout, Ejifort convincingly maintains the moral center of the film. He is continually drawn into the drama of the lives around him especially with Tautou's Juliette and one can't help but feel sorry for him. He underplays the role just enough to counterbalance the character's good-guy sensibilities. As fatigue sets in from exhaustion, Ejifort subtly transitions the character. Who is this guy anyway? I'd never seen him in anything before.
While Dirty Pretty Things is billed as Audrey Tautou's English-language debut, she is unfortunately cast as a Turkish refugee. Her accent is simply too French for the role. It is hard not to fall in love with her, though. Her innocence, much as it played in Amelie, goes right to the heart of her character. Soon, you forget the obviousness of the miscasting, even as she is attempting to protect her virginity in the name of Mohammed.
Benedict Wong, as hospital mortician Guo Yi and co-conspirator of Ejiofor's Okwe, steals the few scenes in which he appears. The obvious comedic relief, his wry cut-ups are a breath of fresh air before plunging back into London's gritty underworld. That his job entails the burning of bloody linens and the sewing-up of the recently deceased, he is perhaps more in tune with the true nature of the topic at hand than anyone else on screen. Besides, Okwe really needs a friend.
Cinematographer Chris Menges does a fine job here of carfefully pacing the shots, much as he did with The Pledge. The beginning is a bit slow, but I think future editing will fix that. Though London is the backdrop, I never felt like I was watching an English film. Perhaps that was the intent, but I would have liked to have seen more clearly defined exterior shots.
Director Stephen Frears returns to his The Grifters roots. Those expecting something akin to High Fidelity will be let down. This is no Green Card meets Robin Cook pseudo-comedy with dead pans to the audience. The urban-legend-come-true formula works because of the absolute sense of reality. He bottles-up the miserable world of his characters, inescapable for so many illegals, and presents it as a sad existence indeed.
Overall, an engrossing film that gets better as it unfolds. The twist ending is great, and satisfies the audience's need for revenge. And if Audrey Tautou is reading, call me?
The Power Broker
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