Dirty Pretty Things: Movie, DVD Review

Directed by Stephen Frears, written by Steve Knight, 107 minutes, rated R.

(Originally published 2002)

At the Baltic, a once upscale, now seedy hotel that’s no stranger to trouble, the night clerk, Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor), is tipped by a popular prostitute (Sophie Okonedo) that there might be trouble in one of the guest rooms. Upon examination, Okwe, a Nigerian exile and former doctor rumored to have killed his wife, finds an overflowing toilet, in which is a recently harvested human heart that’s blocked the plumbing.

The hotel manager and Okwe’s boss, Sneaky (Sergi Lopez), shrugs off the finding with a casual offer of cash--which the morally steadfast Okwe refuses to accept--and then a cool suggestion that Okwe forget what he saw. “Strangers come to hotels to do dirty things,” Sneaky says. “In the morning, it’s our job to make things pretty again.”

But to what end?

It’s just that which is explored in Stephen Frears’ “Dirty Pretty Things.” Smart and raw, the movie is an edgy, urban thriller that exposes London’s uglier corners in ways that that city might sooner want you to forget.

Okwe, who works days driving cab and suffers from an acute bout of insomnia, finds his life further complicated by Senay (Audrey Tautou of “Amelie”), the beautiful, illegal Turkish woman hounded by immigration officials who reluctantly rents her couch to Okwe, and eventually gives him her own heart. Figuratively speaking, of course.

From this, several surprises bloom—some major, most gruesome. Without giving too much away, they involve certain bloody extracurricular activities that take place at the Baltic under Sneaky’s watch, the sort that can either land you in prison for life or buy you freedom with a forged passport.

The movie lags a bit in the middle, but the ending is a lark, the performances and cinematography are strong, and Frears’ examination of immigrant life—the class of people that want to fade from sight for self-preservation yet who help to keep cities like London going—is at once unsettling, moving and complex.

Grade: A-