vernon film society
Bringing the best in world and Canadian film to film lovers of Vernon and the North Okanagan
BRICK LANE
Director: Sarah Gavron
Cast: Tannishtha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik, Christopher Simpson
Run Time: 101 minutes
Country: United Kingdom
Year: 2008
Language: English
Rating: PG (Sexually suggestive scenes, coarse language
Reviews: www.metacritic.com/film/titles/bricklane2008
Official Site: www.sonyclassics.com/bricklane
Brick Lane, which screened to popular acclaim at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival®, is an adaptation of Monica Ali’s celebrated British novel that is as insightful and moving as the story was on the page.
In the film’s breathtaking opening scenes, Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) recalls her childhood in Bangladesh. Her village had an idyllic beauty, but its oppressive social landscape sent her mother to seek her own death. Nazneen is married off to a man she has never met and flown to London’s Brick Lane neighbourhood to meet her new husband. Although she is told to be grateful for having married an educated man, she still finds Chanu (Satish Kaushik) a callous stranger. Cursed with a need to inflate his own importance, Chanu ignores his wife’s needs and presents the humiliations he experiences while trying to find work as evidence of his superior qualities. When he finally lands a menial job, he announces “I have become the driver of Kempton Cars!” as though he’d been appointed to the House of Lords. It’s hopeless: her husband rattles on about dead philosophers while all she wants is a nice sari, some meaning in life and a man to see her truly for who she is. All this will come, but at a price. Director Sarah Gavron makes the most of everything Ali’s novel gives her. When Nazneen pushes to start her own sewing business in their home, it signals the beginning of her autonomy. And when the attractive young Karim (Christopher Simpson) walks in, it marks the beginning of danger. The seduction shared between Nazneen and Karim is as cautious as it is risky.
Gavron balances these intimate moments against the increasingly tense atmosphere in Brick Lane, as the tightly knit Muslim community reacts to the events of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath. Told with compassion, detail and fire, this is one of the great stories of our time.
“Tells a story we think we already know, but we're wrong: It has new things to say within an old formula.” - Chicago Sun-Times
“Beautifully acted and written so its themes are touched upon glancingly rather than with full force.” - The Hollywood Reporter
