Dirty Pretty Things (2002)

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Directed by Stephen Frears.

Starring Sophie Okonedo, Sergi López, Audrey Tautou, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong.

Director Stephen Frears returns to the grittier themes of his earlier films for the urban thriller Dirty Pretty Things. Residing in London, the medically trained Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a Nigerian immigrant working as a taxi driver and a hotel concierge, but he still lives on the edge of poverty. He shares a room with Senay (Amélie's Audrey Tautou making her English-language debut), a Turkish refugee who works as a maid at the hotel. As illegal immigrants, Okwe and Senay live in fear of being deported. One night, working at the front desk, Okwe receives a call from prostitute Juliette (Sophie Okonedo) to check a broken toilet, where he makes a horrifying discovery. He reports it to the manager Sneaky (Sergi Lopez), who blackmails Okwe into staying quiet about it. Okwe soon discovers the presence of a shady business operation that sends him into the seedy London underworld. Senay becomes lured in with hopes of being able to fund her escape to America. Dirty Pretty Things marks the screenwriting debut of Steve Knight, co-creator of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

Trailer of the Day: Priceless
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"For those of us who are still completely enamored with Audrey Tautou in Amelie, seeing the actress in Pierre Salvadori’s Priceless (original title: Hors de prix) could possibly be unsettling (the old international trailer is embedded above, but you can find the new American-release trailer on Moviefone). In the film she plays a character who is the very opposite of Amelie. She’s a shallow gold digger rather than a selfless romantic, the whore rather than the Madonna. She’s also sexy rather than cute, which is only a matter of antithesis in the movies. Is this going against type? Or does she not necessarily have a star persona to begin with? After falling in love with Tautou in Amelie, I watched every one of the actress’ films available in the States, and I quickly realized that she rarely resembles Amelie. Only in Happenstance, which was sold in some markets as Amelie 2, was she close to acting like that beloved, iconic character. And she certainly wasn’t all whimsy and sainthood i ... " [More]

Dirty Pretty Things
by JimBell in JimBell Blog

loved it.

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"Dirty Pretty Things (2002) is a powerful, gritty movie about the hard life of marginal immigrants in London. Unfortunately, Audrey Tautou is cast as a beautiful Turkish woman seeking refugee status, when she does not look, sound, or act Turkish, and her refugee claim is absurd. This does not matter, largely because the situation is more important than the character; that is, a young, good-looking, single woman is forbidden to work until her refugee aplication has been aproved, yet she must work to eat, and so she is forced into work situations where she encounters the dirty things under the pretty face of London. The movie, however, is carried by her male counterpart, an actor named Chiwetel Ejiofor. He is an illegal immigrant on the run, and he has the quiet dignity and integrity that is both a foil and a magnet for the corruption around him. Stephen Frears does a superb directing job, and Stenen Knight wrote a first-rate script.Jim Bell " [More]

Re: Favorites
by Risselada in British Invasion

loved it.

"Alright here's a few British gems that do good things for me. I believe these are all British in some way. Please correct me if otherwise:Two Bruce Robinson classics:Withnail & IHow to Get Ahead in AdvertisingThe Ruling ClassSleuthA Clockwork OrangeRosencrantz and Guildenstern are DeadDirty Pretty ThingsSecrets & LiesBarry LyndonTime BanditsThe LadykillersKind Hearts and CoronetsThe HomecomingA Christmas Carol (1951)Snatch.The Third ManThe Elephant ManFollowingA Zed & Two NoughtsBrazilOliver TwistThe Pink PantherA Shot in the Dark I hear that Kenneth Branaugh is supposedly directing a new film of Sleuth. It looks as though Michael Caine will be taking the other role in this one. What do people think about this? " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

liked it.

After biding time between glossy Hollywood productions and U.K. domestic comedy-dramas, director Stephen Frears returns to the multiethnic, working-class milieu that served his seminal early work, with inspired results. Dirty Pretty Things is that rarest of beasts, the sort of thing only the British can produce: the proletariat mystery-thriller. Former game-show impresario Steve Knight delivers a script that adheres to all the standard tenets of the paranoid thriller, but where he, Frears, and the talented cast make the material their own is in the colorful, grimy details of immigrant life in modern-day London. In fact, for its first third, one might think Dirty Pretty Things is a slice-of-life character study. Only when bodies start popping up does the film shift into thriller mode, and thanks to the realistic tone Frears worked so hard to establish in the opening act, all the revelations, red herrings, and foreshadowing are seamlessly integrated into picture as a whole. If Dirty Pretty Things wraps up all of its plot strands a little too neatly -- complete with a very conventional mustache-twirling villain in the form of Sergi Lopez -- the genuine goodwill engendered by leads Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou (acquitting herself well in her first English-language, not to mention Turkish-accented, role) lends itself to the film's somewhat-improbable happy ending. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

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