Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Dirty Pretty Things (2002)

Director: Stephen Frears

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A sympathetic, engaging and politically astute slice of modern urban realism, set in the twilight world of London's community of recent immigrants and asylum seekers, and directed with Frears' habitual professionalism and sensitivity. Fine, anchoring performances include Ejiofor as the 'virtuous' insomniac Nigerian hotel night porter who time-shares a bed with Turkish cleaner Tautou, and Lopez as the smug and very shifty head porter. Frears' realisation of milieu - high street cab offices, hospital back corridors and cheap rental rooms - is as acute as his eye and ear for the minutiae of character and social interaction. If there's a problem it lies in Steven Knight's script. The dialogue is occasionally stiff and banal and the thriller format increasingly lays a deadhand on the proceedings.

Author: WH 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Stephen Frears

Producer: Tracey Seaward, Robert Jones

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Audrey Tautou, Sergi Lopez, Sophie Okonedo, Benedict Wong, Zlatko Buric, Kriss Dosanjh, Jean-Philippe Ecoffey full cast

Genre(s): Thrillers

Duration: 97 mins

Related articles


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.