Brick Lane ****

Director: Sarah Gavron

Year: 2007

Book by: Monica Ali

Writers: Laura Jones, Abi Morgan

Cinematographer: Robbie Ryan

This is an example of a well-adapted book, it's not rushed in trying to cram the story into 1 hour 40 minutes, although I have not read the book, the film feels tight and stands on its own.

The story of a young girl from Bangladesh who is sold into an arranged marriage to another Bangladeshi man who is well educated and working in London.

The story is very much a woman's story, her struggle in a marriage to a man she did not choose, and an affair she has with a young man she does choose. She is torn between wanting to go "home" to Bangladesh to see her sister, and staying in England for the life that she has grown accustomed to.

She is a woman torn between the old ways and the relatively freer existence offered to women in London.

To add to the complexity of this story, it is set during 2001, around the racial tension in London surrounding 9/11 and the increasing animosity against Muslims and Bangladeshis.

This film works spectacularly because the script gives each character a fully realized and complex personality, no one is clearly good or bad, no one seems consistent or knows who they really are, everyone is constantly evolving throughout the story. This kind of realistic humanity is something rarely seen in cinema, and what sells it are the spectacular performances by each actor, no one seems like they are acting, I was totally immersed in the story and was never aware that I was watching actors. The father figure is especially well realized.

The cinematography is worthy of great credit here. The moods set in the photography are never eye-grabbing, except maybe with the rolling open to closed to open iris technique used at emotionally wrenching moments. The camera never forces itself, but very much participates in the telling of the story, note the love making scene between Nazneen and Karim, the camera without showing actual sex is incredibly sensual, the colors, the movement and placement of edits contributes to a highly erotic scene that captures the amorous mood without being exploitive. What is communicated is the how she is swept away by the affair, and we the audience are just as swept up by the visual story telling here.

Very good film making, complex characters, and a story that defies predictability.

See it!