Untitled Document

This 2007 adaption of Monica Ali's best selling novel tells the story of Nazneen, a 17 year old girl growing up gently amidst the beautiful paddy fields of Bangladesh who is violently wrenched from her idealistic,innocent, life to marry an overweight , middle aged man living in East London. As the film goes on, Nazneen's life becomes more and more complex as she battles with her own emotions, her culture, her husband and the conflict between her new life and her old.

This is, in sum, a totally watchable, enjoyable film. What immediately strikes you about it is the overarching sadness that is entwined from the first reel to the last. I love films which manage to maintain this dolorous, distant, tone throughout. It is an incredibly difficult thing to do and I can only think of a few other films that manage it.

This, together with the often sumptuous cinematography, is the best aspect of the film. I also really enjoyed Tannishtha Chatterjee's performance as Nazneen. She invests the character with exactly the right balance of hope and sadness and carries the film brilliantly throughout. The chemistry between Nazneen and Christopher Simpson's brooding, charismatic, Karim shimmers and cracks, although Simpson is less effective when delivering lines than when looking handsome, deep and smouldering (which he does very well indeed). Satish Kaushick is also quietly effective as Nazneen's husband Chanu and, as the film draws to a close, only then do you realise the difficulty of the job he had to do, and how effectively he pulled it off. What particularly impresses about Brick Lane's characters is their multi-dimensionality. There are no poor ethnic cliches or stereotypes here but vividly drawn, conflicted, dynamic and evolving personalities. Kaushick's Chanu is a perfect example of this in microcosm. An excellent ensemble performance, let down at a few points, but not enough to hamper the effectiveness of the delivery. Indeed, some of the performances might threaten my lists.

On the less bright side stands the film's overall effectiveness. This is, basically, a three hour epic, crammed into an hour and a half and it shows. It is interesting that I observed this with the person I was watching it with, who had read the book, and we both independently felt this. It feels like there is more going on here, behind the scenes, that you never get to see - particularly regarding the relationship between Nazneen and her sister Shahana who remains in Bangladesh. The relationship is arguably the central one of the entire film, but it is never given the care and attention it deserves. The makers of Brick Lane should have been brave enough to try and make a great film, rather than a successful one (and it was only moderately successful anyway).

A mention, too, for Robbie Ryan's cinematography. I'm guessing Robbie is a man (if I'm wrong, Robbie, please correct me), in which case, he deserves extra credit for the very feminine photography which is, in equal measure, sumptuous and delicate, deep and vibrant. The use of colour is so interesting, and so well put together, I'm sure you could write an essay on it and what it means, but, don't worry, I won't. Great credit, though, to Ryan. It is an untruth that it is easy to make beautiful things (and beautiful places) look beautiful. It isn't because, to look beautiful, they must also have meaning, at least as far as decent cinematography is concerned.

I enjoyed this, but not enough to make me watch it again. A shame, the filmmakers should have been braver. But there is still enough here to satisfy most demanding cinema goers.