DEFINITELY NOT THE SAME OLD 'THINGS'.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic STEPHEN FREARS' ``Dirty Pretty Things'' is, like its title, a study in contrasts. It's both a love story and a horror story horror story Story intended to elicit a strong feeling of fear. Such tales are of ancient origin and form a substantial part of folk literature. They may feature supernatural elements such as ghosts, witches, or vampires or address more realistic psychological fears. . Its characters are, at heart, stereotypes, but somehow manage to be convincing, three- dimensional human beings. It's written and produced by the team that co-created ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,'' but is nevertheless one of the year's most literate and thoughtful movies. Set in modern-day London, the movie follows the lives of the anonymous immigrants who populate the service industry, driving the city's cabs, cleaning visitors' hotel rooms, servicing traveling businessmen's sexual needs. It's a brutal, uncompromising film and yet (another contrast) the filmmakers never become preachy preach·y adj. preach·i·er, preach·i·est Inclined or given to tedious and excessive moralizing; didactic. preach or heavy-handed in their treatment of its serious issues. In fact, the movie sometimes isn't serious at all - Frears and screenwriter Steven Knight fill ``Things'' with a black humor black humor, in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony. that can be comically - and invaluably - distracting at times. Most of the movie's action takes place at a midlevel mid·lev·el n. The middle stage or level, as in a series, course of action, or career. London hotel, which Frears transforms into a ring of Dante's Inferno. The hotel is run by displaced foreigners, most of whom are in London illegally. These people are barely getting by, trying to keep a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs and the law off their trail. Essentially, these people live in a prison, ignored by the general populace and acknowledged only by the police who want to deport de·port tr.v. de·port·ed, de·port·ing, de·ports 1. To expel from a country. See Synonyms at banish. 2. To behave or conduct (oneself) in a given manner; comport. them. The main character is Nigerian-born Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor in a brilliant turn), who drives a cab by day and works the night shift at the hotel's front desk. Okwe comes to discover that his boss, Sneaky (Sergi Lopez, the psycho in ``With a Friend Like Harry''), is exploiting the immigrants' desperation in a black-market operation that's straight out of some nightmarish urban legend. If Okwe lends a hand, he might better his life - and that of fellow immigrant Senay (``Amelie's'' Audrey Tautou) - but lose his soul in the process. ``Dirty Pretty Things'' is this month's second film to render London in a way we've never quite seen. Whereas ``28 Days Later'' memorably gave us glimpses of a sleeping city abandoned to death and despair, Frears and master cinematographer Chris Menges (``The Killing Fields,'' ``The Good Thief'') offer another variant of chilly inhospitality Inhospitality Nabal rudely refuses David’s messengers’ request for food. [O. T.: I Samuel 25:10–11] that welcomes its immigrants in the same manner that Stalingrad opened its arms to the Nazis in the winter of 1942. It's just one accomplished facet of a film that does so many things well. Thriller, romance, caper caper, common name for members of the Capparidaceae, a family of tropical plants found chiefly in the Old World and closely related to the family Cruciferae (mustard family). movie, black comedy - ``Dirty Pretty Things'' is all these things and more, hard to synopsize syn·op·size tr.v. syn·op·sized, syn·op·siz·ing, syn·op·siz·es To make a synopsis of; summarize. [Greek sunopsizein, to sum up, from Greek sunopsis, , harder still to forget. DIRTY PRETTY THINGS - Three and one half stars (R: sexual content, disturbing images, language) Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sergi Lopez, Audrey Tautou. Director: Stephen Frears. Running time: 1 hr. 37 min. Playing: Laemmle's Royal Theater in West Los Angeles
In a nutshell: Thriller, romance, caper movie, black comedy - all these things and more, hard to synopsize, harder still to forget. |
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