Brick Lane (2007)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Brick Lane is the adaptation to cinema of the novel with same name, written by British writer Monica Ali, and published in 2003. I never heard of that book, but i must say that the film is below average at best. Apart from the fact that this film has beautiful shots and many beautiful songs composing a good soundtrack, it is dread and full of outdated and unconvincing stereotypes of the Muslim people. It's known the fact that they(Muslims) live in a relatively big number into the Brick Lane street. However, it poor depiction and somewhat racist portrayal of the characters is not a good deal to this film. Is like saying that all the Muslims outside of Bangladesh are poor. And the most impressive of these archetypes is without a doubt,the ignorant father of family. However, he is a kind of a philosophy student, so his behavior with his family is, most of the time, nonsense and contradictory with his own nature. The acting was average, with his ups and downs. Not much thought on it. The story itself is very slow and uninteresting most of time. I do not recommend this film. 4.9/ 10

BRICK LANE is one of the more satisfying films about our remaining cultural identity crises. Based on the novel by Monica Ali and adapted for the screen by Laura Jones, this film flows through the lives of young Bangladeshi sisters - one married off to a successful older obese fellow countryman living in London and the other remaining in the family village. The story is at once sensitively private in its communication between the separated sisters whose sole communication is by letters, each longing for the other sister's advantages, and also woven into a public examination of how 'immigrants' adapt in a foreign country, absorbing all the idiosyncrasies of that new land and the altered perception of the world outside as it changes in dramatic ways. Nazeem (the radiantly beautiful Tannishtha Chatterjee) is married by arrangement to the fat successful Chanu (Satish Kaushik): the two take up residence on the Brick Lane known as London's Little Bangladesh. Nazeem is a quiet and dutiful wife (longing for her sister and her village home), bears Chanu a son (who dies a crib death) and two daughters who comfortably are absorbed into the country of England, the only home they know. The aging Chanu is intelligent but fails to hold jobs, partly because of this outspoken behavior and in part due to prejudice of his employers. Nazeem longs to return to Bangladesh, but when she is required to take in sewing to aid the falling family coffers, she meets the young and handsome Karim (Christopher Simpson). The two fall in love and Nazeem struggles with her duties and moral obligations as a wife and mother and her surfacing realization of her own identity. The Twin Tower tragedy of 9/11 occurs and the people of London turn against the Muslims: Karim is an activist and defends the rights of his fellow Bangladeshi brothers, hoping to encourage Nazeem to join him and remain in London. Nazeem struggles between passion and duty and ultimately finds her own path - becoming a complete woman individual of mature mind. And the results of her growth spell out the ending of the film. The cast is large and very fine, and the photography by Robbie Ryan captures both the childhood remembered magic of Bangladesh and the raw realism of life in London. The musical score by Jocelyn Pook enhances the changing moods of this touching and significant movie. Director Sarah Gavron has found the perfect balance to tell this story of love, family obligations, and the changes of the world events. It is a film well worth seeing multiple times. Grady Harp

There are some books that should not be made into movies, and this is one of them. These are the books where there is very little physical action, but a lot is going on within a person's thoughts, what they feel, etc. That being said, it has been years since I read Brick Lane, but I do remember that I liked the book very much and I somehow recall that more went on in the book. Probably because we really got to know the main character. Her thoughts and feelings. But mostly how it felt to be taken away at such a young age, married off to someone she did not know, that who she was being married to was someone older than her own father, and that she had leave everything she had known to move to a new country and a new way of life. The movie did convey the basic premise of how, for a woman from this culture, one's life does not offer much. It is the same thing, day in and day out, and for the rest of her life. How depressing is that? She does find some solace, which of course causes a lot of guilt and anguish, but the movie does not dwell too long on that aspect. Much of the movie has very little physical action going on, and not much dialogue either, yet the actress who portrayed the main character managed to convey how unhappy she was with her life and how she did want to change it. Read the book instead.

Contains very mild spoilers. The characters in Brick Lane appear boxed into a confined, restricting little world (aren't we all...?). The film's main character is a housewife, Nazneen (played by Tannistha Chatterjee), who habitually recalls childhood memories of green, open spaces and rural life in Bangladesh and shares her private sadness with the viewer that her soul is denied a sense of freedom. Tensions, frustrations and puzzlement about life and where it is going has as it's main back-drop, the interior of a small East London flat.Nazneen's proud, precise, well-read husband is not immediately endearing (in what appears to be a loveless marriage), but subsequently reveals his hidden depths on two occasions in particular; one concerning his Faith (in the presence of his community), in the wake of '9/11' (2001); the other concerning a significant choice about his family's future.Nazneen's sister is never far from her thoughts and the arrival of her letters from Bangladesh have the effect of sustaining Nazneen in the belief that her sister has found love and happiness. Nazneen's only expression of real defiance directed at her husband concerns one of the letters. The correspondence between the sisters remarks on how we tend to put the reader's feelings before our own, when posting a little piece of our world overseas.The film explores how one discovers a hidden self and qualities that duty, force of habit, the day-to-day, and the expectations of others, forces us to deny and conceal - ultimately to our own personal loss, leaving our relationships with those we love the poorer for it.One character in the film is a corrupt elder in the community described as a 'userer' (loan shark!). She supplies a fascinating, malevolent contribution - until Nazneen, waking up to her own inner strengths, challenges her.The film can perhaps best be summarised by the words of Nazneen's husband who later concludes admiringly that the woman he married (who has lived in his shadow some twenty years), was not a 'girl from the village'; implying that Nazneen's simple rural roots belied her wit and savvy. Another important point that should not be lost, is that Nazneen's place (for the most part denied her), in shaping the family's destiny influences their young daughter's lives; growing up essentially in two cultures.Expect a small, compelling cast; admirably directed, scripted and acted throughout. A brave, beautiful film that handled sensitive issues with sensitivity, brought a tear to the eye...and a measure of hope.