Dirty Pretty Things

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.