Dirty Pretty Things (2002) - Good performances anchor Frears' flawed, overrated illegal immigrant drama

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With the piquant title font style and the disrobed star Audrey Tautou under a saucy, mysterious tagline, the poster for Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things hikes up expectations with sex

A hotel receptionist from Africa and a cleaning lady from Turkey, who are both illegal immigrants in London, share their adversities with each other for a while.

Dirty Pretty Things is written by Steven Knight (Allied (2016)) and directed by English master filmmaker Stephen Frears (Gumshoe (1971)).
It is an overly celebrated film with several weak points in its script and portrayal of reality: Sophie Okonedo's (Father & Son (2009, miniseries)) African prostitute character is eloquent and above-it-all; and our hotel 'heroes'' Chinese friend let both of them stay at the morgue where he lives, simply because he is sweet. Besides these dubious instances there's the fact the Chiwetel Ejiofor's (Savannah (2013)) Okwe character is a for me unacceptable hero, because he has fled from his own daughter in Nigeria, basically to live more comfortably in Europe.
What makes Dirty Pretty Things worthwhile anyway are the good performances from Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou (Happy End (2003)), and in supporting parts Zlatko Buric (Iqbal & den Hemmelige Opskrift (2015)) and Sergi López (The Boat Race (2009)).
The story is perplexing, and meant to be so, but it deflates when probed. It runs with a clichéd feeling of pity for economical migrants and refugees, but that view could also easily be subverted by the findings in Dirty Pretty Things: The film could also be taken to say something along the lines of; 'don't become an illegal immigrant in the first place, as they are only humiliated and degraded', (the message to the non-Westerner), and to the West; 'keep illegal immigrants out; they attract exploitative bastards and give rise to tragedies, sad destinies and a disbandment of the union of the established society'.

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Philomena (2013) - Dench astounds in Frears' powerful true-story drama

Watch a scene from the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 13.9 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.39 times its cost)
[Dirty Pretty Things premiered 5 September (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 97 minutes. Shooting took place in the UK, including London. The film opened #36 to a 100k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #18 and in 493 theaters (different weeks), grossing 8.1 mil. $ (58.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.3 mil. $ (9.4 %) and the UK with 852k $ (6.1 %). The film was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, lost to Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, won 4/7 British Independent Spirit award nominations, was nominated for 6 European Film awards, won 2 National Board of Review awards, an award in Venice and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Frears returned with The Deal (2003, TV movie), The Route V50 (2004, short) and theatrically with Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005). Tautou returned in Lost Seamen/Les Marins Perdus (2003). Dirty Pretty Things is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.83/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Dirty Pretty Things?

Pawn Sacrifice (2014) - Zwick, Knight and Maguire's mediocre chess genius movie

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The evocative but dour poster for Edward Zwick's Pawn Sacrifice

 

Bobby Fischer became an obsessive chess master already as a boy. When, as an adult, he is to face Russian Spassky in the chessboard clash between the world's superpowers, the US and the USSR, his psyche creaks on him.

 

Fischer is not a wildly sympathetic character, and the game of chess doesn't really get opened up in Pawn Sacrifice, which for some time makes it seem somewhat grey and dull. But as it reaches its Reykjavik showdown, it grows some legs, especially through the engaged performances of Tobey Maguire (The Great Gatsby (2013)) and Liev Schreiber (Salt (2010)) as the two chess masters. We have got a complex character in Fischer to be sure, but he also remains too enigmatic until the very end. Pawn Sacrifice is not a bad film, but I don't feel we get far enough into Fischer for it to fully succeed.

It is written by Steven Knight (Amazing Grace (2006)) and directed by Edward Zwick (Glory (1989)).

 

Related review:
 

Edward Zwick: Blood Diamond (2006) - Fundamentally flawed, unsuccessful Africa-venture with important issues at its core

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 19 mil. $

Box office: 5.5 mil. $

= Box office disaster

[Pawn Sacrifice premiered September 11 (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 115 minutes. Filming took place in Reykjavik, Montreal and LA from October - December 2013. The film opened #33 to a 0.2 mil. $ first weekend in 33 theaters, widening to #12 with 1 mil. $ in 781 theaters in North America, where it grossed 2.4 mil. $ (43.6 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 427k $ (7.8 %) and Spain with 230k $ (4.2 %). The film is far from historically accurate, as is revealed here. Pawn Sacrifice is fresh at 72 % with a 6.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Pawn Sacrifice?

Eastern Promises (2007) - Cronenberg invites us to meet the Russian mob in London

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+ Best London Movie of the Year + Best Mob Movie of the Year + Best Villain of the Year: Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai + Best Fight Scene of the Year (the bath house fight) + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

The poster for David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises prominently features the tattooed hands of Viggo Mortensen's character in the film

QUICK REVIEW:

A British-Russian midwife in a London hospital makes a fateful find as she helps birth the daughter of a young Russian rape victim who dies in labor: The girl's diary subsequently leads her on a frightening and dangerous road to the local Russian mob.

Eastern Promises is an excellent mob thriller written by Steven Knight (Pawn Sacrifice (2014)) and directed by Canadian master filmmaker David Cronenberg (Naked Lunch (1991)). It is a rare film, because it deals with the Russian mob in London, and from what the movie shows, the cinematically ubiquitous Italian mob sort of fades against the hardcore vileness of the Russian hoods.
The story is exciting, and Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive (2001)) is great as the midwife who needs to know what happened and soon finds herself in trouble for this. Oscar-nominated Viggo Mortensen (Albino Alligator (1996)) is tough as nails as Nikolai, SPOILER who partakes in the film's bathhouse fight that must go down in cinema history as one of the greatest, most vicious fights of all time.
SPOILER My only real reservation to this fine film is that while it 'closes' the story of the baby, we get no conclusion as to the future of Nikolai; does he become boss? Does he reveal the mobsters? I really want to know, but the film ends with no answer given. Others feel this is part of its brilliance.

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Dead Ringers (1988) or, Brothers and Their Instruments 
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The Brood (1979) or, Marital Fury and Craze!   

Viggo Mortensen gives a show-stopping performance in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises

In lieu of a trailer, not currently on Youtube, here you can listen to 15 minutes of Howard Shore's score from the film

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 56.1 mil. $
= Big flop
[Eastern Promises premiered September 8 (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 101 minutes. It was mostly shot on location in London, beginning in November 2006. The tattoos and portrayal of the Russian mob in the film is said to be truthful. The film won the Best Film audience prize in Toronto and was lauded critically. Roger Ebert among others awarded it a top grade, and it made several critics' top 10 lists of the year. In its wide release, it came in #5 (in 1,404 theaters) to a 5.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed a somewhat disappointing 17.2 mil. $ (30.7 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 6.8 mil. $ (12.1 %) and Spain with 4.8 mil. $ (8.6 %). The film received one Oscar nomination for Best Actor (Mortensen), which he lost to Daniel Day-Lewis for the masterpiece There Will Be Blood. It was also nominated for 3 Golden Globes, winning none. Talks of a sequel were laid to rest in 2013 by Cronenberg, who placed the responsibility with US distributor Focus Features' James Schamus. However, the blame most certainly lies with the big flop status of the original film, whose big budget is obvious in its top notch production value, talents and London locale. Eastern Promises is certified fresh at 89 % with a 7.6 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Eastern Promises?