Dirty Pretty Things Review
Director: Stephen Frears
Writer: Steven Knight
Dirty Pretty Things is a film based in England. The film is about Okwe (Chiwetel Ejlofor) who is a Nigerian immigrant who is illegally in the country. Okwe is living a hard life and is struggling to get by and due to this has to do various job, during the night he is a hotel receptionist and during the day he practises some medicine because he has a doctors degree, but this is a very strange medical practise. Throughout the film Okwe has had to flee Immigration officers. Okwe discovers that his Boss Juan (Sergi Lòpez) is in charge of an illegal scheme in which surgeries take place to remove an inner e.g. liver and sold for their freedom into the country. Juan offers Okwe a deal to be the surgeon to get his immigration papers and to be a free man, the choice stood.
From the onset of the film you are introduced to Okwe’s hectic lifestyle not truly understand what is happening but you understand that he has many jobs and some are better than others. The skies and dark and lost through out most of the film in a way, this expresses in my opinion about Okwe in the beginning because he is staying with Senay (Audrey Tautou) who is a maid at the hotel he has his night shift for, but he only has the sofa it is not permanent so it makes him look very venerable and quite lost like the skies at the time of this.
I feel the genres for this film would be firstly Crime due to the whole nature of this film being about the illegal happenings which are occurring within the hotel and why they are doing them e.g. to provide immunity into London for immigrants they have hired within the hotel. Secondly in a very unclassified way reality is one of the genre because i believe that many events like this occur around the world and that is a strange thing to think about when you watch this film because you would think that this is all fictional but people do crazy things for money and this is evident in this film. I found this quite eye opening due to the reality of many of the things happening in this film including the part when the sewing shop owner forces Senay to give him oral sex, this was shocking but many business owners feel they over power all and can do what they want whenever but Senay stands up showing a theme of strength which i found quite commendable.
The themes in my opinion in this film varied due to the film’s content and characters. The main themes i felt were courage due to Okwe in his last scene flipping the tables in the plot, i don't think many saw what what about to happen and that scene showed courage from all involved because any slip up would have ended horribly. Freedom was defiantly a main theme in this film due to really the whole plot and narrative, the main part in the film that hinted freedom was the lengths to which people would go to get it, trading a liver for your freedom just so someone can get more money and you risking your life, the sense in that? but this is how far and even further many would go. Finally i can see a subtle sense of romance from the first time Okwe and Senay clutched eyes in the hotel lobby, the romance is subtle due to the blindness of Okwe not realising that Senay had strong feeling but he never saw it until the ending were it becomes evident and thats truly when you sit down in your chair and say finally. The themes played a big part in this film and all of them truly made this film the best it could be which was gripping, enjoyable and hard hitting which all worked so well together.
I found that the performances throughout this whole film were outstanding due to their connection with the character and the troubles in which they have been through and in some cases are still going through. You are able to connect to each character and see how each of them provide the same enthusiasm into their performances. Each character sold themselves like they were that person this was due to the well captured costumes which helped to relate to each characters personality, for example Okwe went from down stressed in a coat and trousers to very dapper in his desk uniform, showing how the person he is does everything so he can provide, live and try to become a free human being due to his illegal residency in London.Throughout however you do see various changes to each character, in my opinion i see a change in Okwe that really does open up his eyes and makes him think about what he is doing and how it could affect him, however he never loses sight of his goal and never loses his dignity as a very professional surgeon who is not one for taking brutal orders. You can also see Senay change throughout in a very different way you see her becoming much more cautious and actually more venerable and the film goes on which is strange as you see her in the beginning as quite a well put together strong girl which through situations gets knocked down slightly but at the end she is back and more determined than ever.
In my opinion i think both Okwe and Senay’s performances were truly outstanding due to the nature in which there characters are involved because they are both secretly liking each other and slightly hinting ever so often but in the end you see the true love between both of them which is really the bit that i think many were hit by as you never truly knew if the moment would come but in the end it arrives and it makes you happy as they are both happy now. They are free.
The sounds throughout the film were quite hard hitting and powerful which truly made you be able to connect to every aspect of the scene the emotion, the suspense, the clarity etc. In the beginning the sound seemed to be quite relaxed and set back showing how in the beginning all the problems that were soon to come were not in sight and that they were all allowed to be just them for that moment in time. As the film progresses the music seems to begin to match up with each event that is happening in the film, showing that the director wants you to truly grip the piece and see how each event with the music makes you feel. I find this very clever and enjoyed being able to listen to the sound and see how it fit with each scenario. Overall i felt however the sound could be lost in certain parts which meant that you didn't grip the full scene in depth but overall i felt the sound was well positioned.
Throughout the film the shot sizes showed various different aspects which lead you to the final outcome which in my opinion was the heart inside the toilet, i felt this because this shot was the part when everything soon became clear to Okwe that the hotel was not all that it seemed and that is when everything seems to go wrong. The heart shot really showed him holding the lifeline in his hand and not knowing what to do, really this is like most of the characters in this film because they all had a grip on their lifeline but they were unable to act as they were unable e.g. illegal citizens. i felt that overall this film was well captured due to the clever and technical camera angling which made it easy to see the things they wanted you to see but then keep the things which were soon to come out in the dark, which i felt was very clever.
Overall i truly enjoyed this film due to the message being put across, which were hard to understand in the beginning but by the end you were able to understand the situation of each of the character and to see in a way how each aspect of the film influenced them. Freedom was achieved in a way that was unclear in the beginning but by the end you knew the lengths people would go and what award it brought them in the end, Okwe being able to see his daughter again the moment he never saw his future having, incredible.
