Dirty Pretty Things

Oh. what uncanny mystery. I rented this movie by Stephen Frears upon recommendation, but did not watch it immediately, extending the pleasure in the controlled waiting. (At this, I am not very good). Perhaps it was also because I was too far gone, almost pulling the whole shelf of videos down upon myself, when I thought that my fingers were not even grazing the shelf. Altered mind-states are not so good, especially because after I departed from the store, I could not find the people who were supposedly waiting for me, and prodeeded to wander in circles, just in front of the foot patrol, with no keys to my house and freezing, clutching borrowed wallet, which I then almost lost, dropping it on the ground upon arrival at home and only finding it in the morning...I have found myself! Which means... no more need to lose myself!

Back to the film. I didn't know much about it, and so the thoughts I had about the mujeres de Juarez were strangely in line, but totally unrelated to my viewing of the film (as it took place later in the evening). Amazing! How could you not find this to be a masterpiece? The tightly drawn sense of space was fabulous. That, I think, was the film's triumph. Not to discredit the acting, which was also worthy of praise, but the sensation of viewer participation in the enclosed spaces was, for me, the most exceptional part. Of course I can't forget the fabulous screenplay and the unforgettable lines "my work is all about happiness" and "Today I bit!". It could be seen as a look into urban depravity, London immigrant style, but it was so much more. The idea of multiple versions of reality, outlaws who are good and upstanding citizens that are anything but..., love's insufficiency, its inability to manifest itself beyond the merely emotional. There is no union, no happily-ever-after for the protagonist/ love interests, but rather, each is pushed farther towards their individual goals, with just the faintest possibility that they might re-encounter. It is a triumph of hard work, and it examines the lives of the "invisible class" - "Why haven't we seen you people before?" "Because we are the people that you don't see... we clean your rooms... we suck your cocks" Probably the best scene in the entire movie, as they collected the 10,000 for a kidney robbed from the would-be butcher, who was fooled by the immaculate surgical stage, the creation of space literally acting to dupe not only the audience but the characters.

Fabulous. And strangely uplifting despite its murky theme.