Director Sarah Gavron and screenwriter Abi Morgan team to adapt author Monica Ali's award-winning novel about a young girl from Bangladesh who finds the spark in her soul slowly fading after traveling to London for an arranged marriage. As a child, Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) was always told that she was a survivor. Now, as a young adult, she must contend with the sudden death of her mother. Her father arranges her marriage to a man she has never met, and she gets shuttled off from her
quaint village to a working-class neighborhood in East London, as the bride of Chanu (Satish Kaushik), where she earns extra income via sewing. At first, the newlywed Nazneen does her best to be a devoted wife and loving mother. It's a lonely life, and as the pompous ineffectual Chanu does his best to fit into British society, the bored housewife finds herself increasingly drawn to Karim (Christopher Simpson), the hotheaded fellow who delivers pants to her door for various sewing jobs. The two lapse into an impassioned affair, but Chanu grows increasingly determined to marry Nazreen himself, especially as his own politics become more and more radical in the wake of 9/11. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Kaushik is remarkable as Chanu, a role that demands he be a buffoonish, yet loving man, intelligent beneath his self-aggrandizing attitudes, oversized ambitions and determined cheerfulness.
Small, intimate and achingly modern, Brick Lane is a lovely study involving both one woman's awakening and the inevitability of cross-cultural pollination.
The cinematography is gorgeous, the through-narrative is strong but subtle, and Gavron coaxes performances out of her actors that blend well with the overall tone and atmosphere.
The sort of empowerment flick that could get a fatwa issued against the intrepid director daring enough to make a picture about Islam's subjugation of females.
In Chanu, it creates an indelible protagonist. He thinks he is a man of ideas. He is a man who, when it counts, is full of common sense and uncommon feeling.
As a Westernised woman watching this film you really feel a sense of imprisionment and control the main character felt within the marriage and you really see the film through her eyes all the way through.
It isn?t quite the story the synopsis explains it to be, which as it happens turns out to be a much better film
because of it, it creates a gritty, realistic plot with the post 911 affects in the background story.
A very enjoyable Drama with depth and perspective, I was reminded lots of the Color Purple whilst watching this film.
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