Dirty Pretty Things review

Robyn Matthews Film studies

Dirty Pretty Things film review.

             This is a Stephen Frears production produced in 2002. Entwined in this film are the genre of social realism, drama and thriller, furthermore, embedded in this film are the themes of suspense, jealousy, love, violence, torture, escape, deception, survival and  determination. This film displays the affects immigration has on certain individuals, Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Senay Gelik (Audrey Tautou) are the focus point of the film as the directors focus was to help the viewer understand and emphasise their situation. I feel the narrative of this film is very powerful as it had the capability to change my viewpoint on immigration.

              The mis en scene of the Okwes character was used to create a red-eyed, lazy  character, because he works double shifts. He also is a doctor that had qualified over in Jamaica. The movie doesn't elaborate on the troubles that have sent him so far from home; all we really know is that he has left a wife and a daughter behind, and part of his pain comes from pining for them.

I feel the target audience for this film is teenagers/ young adults, I feel this because this film needs your full concentration and a lot of dedication to each and every scene from beginning to the end and younger children may become distracted and miss a few scenes and then lose he whole story line of the plot. I feel that teenagers will be interested in Dirty Pretty Things as immigration is a headline that is constantly bombarded in the news and young children of today are constantly made aware of.

There is a scene in the film, discovering the heart, that particularly grabs my interest Owke enters the hotel room after being noted that there is a problem with the room there is a mid-shot of the bed which is messy which signifies that the room had been occupied recently, Okwe then alerted by the noise of overflowing water makes his way to the bathroom, there is a close up of an overflowing toilet which clearly displays the problem. The viewer at this point is unaware of the cause of the blocking but in unalarmed as this is a common problem that is easily caused and easily fixed. Older viewers whom have houses to themselves are sympathetic to Okwe after then seeing a close up of his face and noticing his expression of aggravation and frustration. He then uses tongs to try and remove the blockage, however, it is clear that there is not a usual blockage as the water begins to turn red as it had been diluted by blood from the cause of the blockage. The camera then shows a shot from inside the toilet looking up at Okwe. Confusion. Confusion is the main expression on Okwe’s face… what is in this toilet? He uses a plastic bag to enter his hand into the toilet and retrieve the blockage manually. As he then pulls out a “fully functioning human heart” tense music composed of violins start to play. This incorporation of music adds dramatic suspense and portrays Okwe’s thoughts through orchestra. The subject of the scene suddenly changes as the music stops and the door slams…someone’s entered the room.

I enjoyed this film a lot, I feel the plot was original as I had never seen a film of this dramatic intake before and the suspense created through music was a nice technique as all the best films in my opinion have the influence of music to add tension and suspence, for example Jaws and Psyco (Steven Steilburg and Michael Curtiz). The crudeness of the sexual exchange for work and the ghastly extents to receiving a passport made it a top quality film that had many unexpected events that kept changing. I love how the morale of the film was continually the same as Okwe and Senay’s main goal was always to escape Britain. It was made clear from the beginning that Senay wanted to travel to New York, which many people believed to be the land of freedom in these times and the government is run differently and the common law is everybody makes their own living for themselves. However, we are unaware of Okwe’s path and where he wishes to go until the latter half of the film where it is revealed that he has a daughter in Nigeria which he is evidently trying to reunite with.