I was curious going in about what the title of this movie means, and they explained it quickly. The protagonist works in a hotel (as well as driving cabs) in London, and his boss explains that the customers spend the night making things dirty, and it's their job to make things pretty again in the morning. This is proven early on when Onky (Okny? It's a nickname based on a multisyllabic Nigerian name) finds something, errr, rather dirty blocking a toilet.
It piques his interest, as he's a former doctor or medical student who is coerced into treating his boss at the cab stand, and then all his co-workers, for the clap. He sleeps, well, he could sleep if he didn't stay up all the time, on the couch of a co-worker at the hotel, played by Audrey Tautou. How's he manage to work all night and all day? He's addicted to khat, a plant whose leaves are chewed as a stimulant throughout Africa but is illegal in the west.
Onky is an illegal, and Tautou's character is a barely legal immigrant from Turkey who isn't allowed to work or except rent money from anyone. The movie starts fairly slowly, but quickly picks up steam when two creepy immigration cops show up to bust both of them. The two main characters spend the rest of the movie running from the cops and from their slick and corrupt Spanish boss at the hotel.
This wasn't a great movie, but it was very good. The two lead characters are very well played, Tautou proves that she isn't just the cute and bouncy Amelie, she gives real grit to the over-worked and desperate immigrant who is trying to get to New York. I also enjoyed Onky's friend, a chess playing Chinese hospital porter.
I came away from this movie really appreciative about being an American. It's amazing the lengths that people will go to to move here, even illegally. I'm glad that all I had to do was be born.
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