Blogcritics Comments on Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things: Who Wants to Be a Victim

Comment by Alan Dale on Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things: Who Wants to Be a Victim

Fri, 22 Aug 2003 10:34:28 EDT

Hey Eric, Thanks! I want that comment put on my tombstone. Don't forget. Alan ]]>

Comment by Eric Olsen on Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things: Who Wants to Be a Victim

Fri, 22 Aug 2003 10:10:36 EDT

Here's a comment: you rock for some weird professor type or something! ]]>

Comment by Alan Dale on Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things: Who Wants to Be a Victim

Fri, 22 Aug 2003 08:45:07 EDT

Hi, Thanks for writing. Getting comments is the best part of reviewing. Your guess about the turnaround makes sense, it's just that a lot (most?) of the dirt on us comes from the inside and I feel that the moviemakers treat us like children who can't be told the entire truth by making the hero purely good, as if we couldn't sympathize with an exploited immigrant worker unless he were morally without blemish. Doesn't this involve a bit of hypocrisy, as well? Are you purely good? I'm not, even though I'm not conscious of any terrible crimes. But a character like Okwe isn't even self-centered to the ordinary extent and all his moods are justified. It wouldn't matter if it were purely a romance. Galahad, Lohengrin, Shane have no flaws. But in Dirty Pretty Things the immigrant economy is treated naturalistically and the pure characters don't jibe with that treatment. (Though perhaps another writer or director could have made it work--I'm not trying to state a rule. Actually, Joel McCrea's character in Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country straddles chivalric romance and realism very successfully.) Anyway, let me know what you think when you've seen the movie. Thanks again for reading and commenting, Alan ]]>

Comment by Mac Diva on Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things: Who Wants to Be a Victim

Thu, 21 Aug 2003 18:11:33 EDT

Thanks for posting this review, Alan. I haven't seen the movie yet, but it is at the top of my list. We will try to fit it in this weekend. Of course I will form my own opinion about whether the hero is too flawless. From what you've said abput the plot, I wonder if the turn around at the end might be the writer's way of saying everyone gets some dirt on'em in this mean ole world, including Okwe. Will let you know what I think after I see Pretty, Dirty. ]]>