London Broil

Dirty Pretty Things is a superb thriller about people and secrets in the shadows.  (Film Review)

by Michael Sean McGowan

You do not know us- because we are the people you never see.

            -Dialogue from Dirty Pretty Things

            Okwe is one of these people.  In his native Nigeria, we are told, he was a highly skilled, highly trained doctor until he had to flee to London where, without a passport or visa, he tries to get by driving cabs and working as a desk clerk at a posh hotel during the skeleton shift.  Because he is in the country illegally, his name is little more than a personal memento- he can’t even risk contacting the police when he discovers a human heart stopping the toilet in one of the hotel’s suites.

            Dirty Pretty Things is about Okwe and his confidant, Senay (Audrey Tautou), whose existence working menial jobs is part of a daily ritual of survival that is both treacherous and never ending.  Unlike Okwe, Senay is a refugee of her native Turkey, and thus, by immigration standards I cannot begin to comprehend, is not allowed to maintain a job to provide money to keep herself alive.  Both live in mortal terror of the prowling eyes of immigration agents and both are at the mercy of people who know their situation and wish to exploit it for their own gain.  Like the servants in Gosford Park, their participation, their silence in anything from butchery to rape is assumed because of their precarious lot in life.

            I’m writing this review at the same time I’m writing a review to Underworld, a movie which had a significantly higher budget, higher exposure, but actually could learn a thing or two from this aggressive little thriller.  I wrote that in Underworld the characters were little more than non-entities who existed at the mercy of the plotting- nothing they did seemed to stem from a sense of personality or desire, but rather a flow chart that would get the plot from point A to point B with as little fuss as possible.  Dirty Pretty Things is a showcase for everything that other film missed.  Its characters are full-blooded, complicated, and when they are put in danger, they are required to react, to choose based on their own moral standards and use their intelligence to survive.

            The rock in the center of the film is Chewetel Ejiofor, an actor whose name I’ve never heard before but whom I will look for in the future.  Ejiofor plays Okwe with a sly, smart mix of intelligence and caution.  He is a man who knows he can do more, play a larger part even in a crowded metropolis like London, but the thought of being returned to Nigeria is too much of a burden seeing that he is wanted in that country under circumstances I will not divulge here.  He is a man of deep, good humor, but also seems to be afraid to let too much of that show, either, lest he draw attention to himself.  It seems ridiculous, almost criminal, that so much of Dirty Pretty Things depends on Ejiofor and his face isn’t even on the film’s poster nor his name given prominent billing.

            When Okwe discovers the heart in the toilet of the hotel room, he stumbles upon a black market operation that takes the healthy kidneys of other “nameless” immigrants like him in exchange for forged citizenship documents.  The hotel’s manager Juan ( Sergi Lopez ) at first tries to keep Okwe at bay with not-so-veiled threats.  But look what happens later when Juan discovers that Okwe is actually a doctor and assumes his willingness to be an accomplice to the scheme- simply because he is one of the unnoticed.

            Tautou, who is fast shedding the pleasant, girl-next-store quality she showed in spades in Amelie, makes Senay a survivalist- tough, but not to incredulous, clichéd extremes.  She takes a job in a sweatshop when her connection to Okwe threatens her position as a maid at the hotel.  There, she suffers an unspeakable abuse at the hands of a man who, like Juan, assumes that fear and compliance go hand-in-hand.  The way she eventually turns the tables on him feels real; it is satisfying, but also carries a consequence.

            It is the character of the manager Juan, though, that can make or break a movie like this.  Rather than being a stock tough, Juan is probably one of the most intelligent, articulate villains I’ve seen in recent years.  The way he expresses himself suggests a man whose morals are lacking (if he even had them in the first place), however, he works on a far higher level than a plot device.  He is far more frightening than all of the vampires and werewolves in Underworld.

            As the story develops, so do the choices.  Senay, who is desperate to escape London and flee to New York, becomes a bargaining chip in the whole charade.  Okwe is going to have to let his sense of right and wrong come into direct conflict with his desire to see Senay unharmed.  How he does this is the meat and the beauty of the movie.

            There are a few cheats.  First, I’m not sure if I’m completely sold on the idea that a black market body parts ring would risk doing its operations in the middle of an expensive hotel (although I’ll be willing to bet there are stories of real life crimes that will explain a precedent).  Secondly, like in most thrillers, the protagonist has a friend whose livelihood or occupation (in this case, a technician at the city morgue) provides convenient access to information or equipment.  However, when a movie simply brushes on clichés like this rather than relying on them, it tends to make us smile rather than wince.

            Director Stephen Frears (High Fidelity, The Grifters) likes to make movies of smart ingenuity and, most of all, cohesiveness.  Despite Tautou’s lone face on the poster, this isn’t just her show (and to her credit, she doesn’t act as if this is strictly her movie).  All the links in the chain are strong.  Dirty Pretty Things isn’t just a mystery- it is about the sense of self it takes to answer hard questions- and the fear of going places we would normally dare not tread.  B+