Anyone who has lived or worked in a big city in England in the last thirty years can't help but have noticed that a large proportion of workers in what used to be called the "service industries" are - for want of a better and less inflammatory word - foreign.This is not a recent occurrence.Hotel workers,restaurant staff,minicab drivers,porters,any occupation with a high turnover rate and a low profile that keeps them off the computer will suit somebody willing to work hard,often at more than one job,for not much money.Every new "underclass" that emerges occupies these badly-paid but essential jobs for a time before a fresh "underclass" arrives to take them over. Starting with Jewish immigrants in the East End during Victorian times,each group has been involved in a diaspora that has seen the area they once occupied and the jobs they once held taken over by more recent arrivals. This has traditionally been part of the Immigrant Experience in all Western countries that accept political and economic refugees. However,due to a huge increase in people claiming political asylum,many countries have found it necessary to impose restrictions on those being allowed to take up residence. One of the unlooked for side-effects of such a policy is the growth of a large sub - culture of immigrants with no legal status,no rights except those defined for them in the amorphous "Human Rights Act",and no one to speak for them when they are ill-used. "Dirty Pretty Things" attempts to redress the balance,and heaven knows it's a worthy enough motive,but sadly fails at the finish due almost entirely to it's irresistible urge to over egg the pudding. Making the main character a handsome sympathetic doctor in an attempt to bring the audience onside right from the start is far too obvious a device.There may well be one or two handsome sympathetic doctors in London working as hotel clerks and cab drivers,but I feel it is far more likely that a more representative portrayal of an illegal immigrant might be a little further down the professional scale. Contrast him with the sallow,blue-jowled,shifty-eyed bullying Immigration Officers and you have simplistic story-telling if not stereotyping,something I'm fairly certain Mr Frears is not in favour of.Add an excitable Russian and a tart with a heart and cliché is beginning to build on cliché. There are far too many holes in the plot for it to be taken seriously,so this is a "message" picture hanging on to the conventions of a thriller and we all know what Mr Goldwyn said about messages."Dirty Pretty Things" could have been a disturbing and revealing look at the depredations of the underprivileged and disenfranchised on the fringes of British society or it could have been an intriguing thriller.In trying to make it both Mr Frears has succeeded only in fudging the issues of the former and failing to grasp the essentials of the latter. By peopling his film with stock characters he has diminished whatever impact it may have had.It is significant that the only interesting role is that of "Sneaky",a man whose aberrations are all too apparent,but who is at least recognisably human .
Review of Dirty Pretty Things
