Brick Lane

Based on the novel by Monica Ali, opening July 4th in Toronto
Directed by Sarah Gavron

Review by Haley Cullingham

So far, this summer has been saturated with Sex (that's the royal Sex, as in Sex and the City). With a movie like SATC dominating the theatres, the media, and the majority of marketing towards women these past few months, it can be easy to forget that feminism, the female identity, and issues faced by women come in many different forms. Brick Lane, opening next week, is a beautiful example of the universal struggles attached to being a woman; in this case, a Bangladeshi immigrant living in East London.

Sent to the UK to be married at 17, and living with her husband and her two daughters, the film centres around Nasneem, played by the stunning Tannishtha Chatterjee, and explores her journey through the many almost chameleon changes demanded of women today, and immigrant women especially. She enters the film as a care-free child, becomes a shy, obedient wife, discovers her own sexuality and independent identity, and then fights, for both herself and her daughters, to hang on to it. Though the issues explored are universal, the film is far from typical or cliche. Beautifully executed, the images on-screen are vibrant, and lyrical. From the villages of Bangladesh to the flats of London, the images are so textured you can almost feel the fabric, snow, streets, and skin on-screen. The characters are just as beautifully rendered, each one as vivid as they are complex, from Nasneem's teenage daughter, railing against her family's confusion, to her husband, struggling to face obstacles of racism even his intelligence and education can't overcome, to Nasneem's young lover, a militant London-born muslim trying to make a difference in the city he calls home.

Taking place at the same time as the 9/11 attacks, the film explores issues of race as much as issues of personal identity and human relationships. Rarely is a book depicted this seamlessly on screen-the movie feels like a whole, it's literary roots merely adding levels of depth to the plot and characters. The performances and filmmaking are magnificent, the issues thought-provoking, the story at once heart-wrenching and hopeful. The film truly captures the concept that though you may be unable to change your world, you can change yourself within it, and find happiness.