"A ‘Pretty’ Powerful Love Story"
by Scott Mantz

"Dirty Pretty Things"
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Audrey Tautou
Directed by Stephen Frears

Doctor without borders! Audrey Tautou and Chiwetel Ejiofor resort to desperate measures in "Dirty Pretty Things"

It isn’t easy to make a living these days, but if you think you’ve got it bad, think again. There are people who have it worse—much worse. In "Dirty Pretty Things"—the latest film from prolific director Stephen Frears—illegal immigrants are forced to work menial service jobs in order to stay in the country, and it isn’t a pretty sight. What is pretty is the film itself, which rises above its dark subject matter to emerge as a strangely beautiful love story with haunting suspense, unexpected humor and a payoff that will blow you away.

Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a kind-hearted, sleep-deprived Nigerian doctor who works a number of odd jobs in order to stay in London. One of those jobs is as a front desk clerk in a seedy hotel, where he works with Senay (Audrey Tautou), a Turkish chambermaid who is desperate to find a better life in New York City. When Okwe finds a human heart in one of the hotel bathrooms, he stumbles upon a harrowing operation run by the sleazy hotel manager (Sergi Lopez) where freshly donated organs are exchanged for fast cash and phony passports.

Moviegoers looking for a mesmerizing, intense and wholly original hero’s journey are in for a thrill with "Dirty Pretty Things." Director Stephen Frears takes his time to set the mood of Okwe’s predicament with an engaging pace, and he executes his daily battle with frightening realism. By the time the story really kicks into gear, you know who the characters are (and who they are to each other), and that makes you sympathize with their journey even more.

"Dirty Pretty Things" is obviously a very serious film, but Frears and first-time screenwriter Steven Knight inject the story with an ample dose of humor and, more importantly, a powerful love story between Okwe and Senay. Though they initially seem to be living together out of necessity, we quickly realize that there is a powerful bond between them, and at no point does it feel fabricated or contrived. On the other hand, while the humor is a welcome diversion from the dark nature of the subject matter, it can, at times, be intrusive to the suspense.

As the Nigerian immigrant Okwe, Chiwetel Ejiofor makes his feature-acting debut with a tour-de-force performance. While Frears paints the underbelly of working class London with a dark, gritty paintbrush of periodically bizarre proportions, Ejiofor traverses the grimy streets like a guardian angel. He also has believable chemistry with French ingénue Audrey Tautou, who—after "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not"—makes another clean break from her cutie-pie "Amelie" image with a desperate, tragic and endearing performance (all the more poignant since she speaks English with a Turkish accent).

The supporting performances are also quite strong and compliment the main players. Sergio Lopez—who played the crazed psycho in "With a Friend Like Harry"—is deliciously slimy as the hotel manager in charge of the organ donor operation, while Benedict Wong gives the film its biggest laughs as Ejiofor’s one-and-only true friend.

With an accomplished career that includes films like "Dangerous Liaisons," "The Grifters," "The Snapper" and "High Fidelity," Stephen Frears adds yet another richly textured and extremely human story to his impressive resume. Thanks to an incredible ending that comes out of nowhere—but still makes perfect sense—"Dirty Pretty Things" turns out to be a wonderfully unique love story that cuts deeper than the rest.

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