The director, Sarah Gavron, came through documentaries and BBC TV drama. This is her first feature and she makes the film very sensual, as well as highly controlled.
Comment
03/21/08
Brick Lane (2008)
65
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:93
Fresh:60
Rotten:33
Average Rating:6.1/10
Consensus: Frustratingly slow-moving, but ultimately saved by Chatterjee's solid acting and Gavron's gentle patience.
Australian Theatrical Release:
Mar 20, 2008 Wide
US Box Office: $1,010,010
Synopsis: Nazneen’s life is turned upside down at the tender age of seventeen,. Forced into an arranged marriage to an older man, she exchanges her Bangladeshi village home for a block of flats in London’s... [More]
Starring: Tannishtha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik, Christopher Simpson, Naeema Begum
Director: Sarah Gavron
Reviews for Brick Lane
Top CriticThe daily grind of a Brick Lane Bangladeshi is credibly brought to life in this sensitive and intelligent adaptation of Monica Ali’s novel.
03/19/08
Top CriticIt is, like all immigrant stories, about identity and Nazneen’s journey is both painful and touching.
03/19/08
Top CriticTannishtha Chatterjee, known in India for film and theatre work, is excellent as the vulnerable, isolated young woman who gradually builds herself into a resilient survivor who can smile and tame the pain of her world
03/11/08
Top CriticClick to read the article
05/13/09
Click to read the article
04/23/09
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10/18/08
A blandly earnest coming-of-age story.
10/18/08
Brick Lane is lovely to look at and the performances, particularly from Chatterjee and Kaushik, are delightful.
10/18/08
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.
10/18/08
Despite the fine performances, Brick Lane comes across as a nice soap opera when it promised much more.
10/18/08
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.
09/19/08
As long as Brick Lane remains focused on Nazneen, it succeeds admirably.
09/19/08
... an intriguing and visually interesting film that in aggregate never escapes the genre ghetto. It is another immigration song, a glancing curiosity that never really penetrates our preconceived romantic illusions.
09/12/08
Relative newcomer Chatterjee is a revelation as Nazneen. It's her character's predicament that holds our interest.
08/08/08
Brick Lane, by director Sarah Gavron and Angela's Ashes screenwriter Laura Jones, is, like Mira Nair's film The Namesake, a heartfelt portrait of the new immigrant experience.
08/08/08
The slant is feminist, but the most interesting character is not the saintly and long-suffering wife but her initially ridiculous husband (wonderfully played by Satish Kaushik).
08/08/08
The story has many themes to contend with and sometimes accordingly becomes unfocused, but when fully controlled it’s also quite moving and surprising.
08/07/08
Small, intimate and achingly modern, Brick Lane is a lovely study involving both one woman's awakening and the inevitability of cross-cultural pollination.
08/01/08
Brick Lane is a grown-up movie. It recognizes that there are different kinds of love and that some of them don't involve happily-ever-afters.
07/31/08
Top CriticLatest News for Brick Lane
January 23, 2009:
A movie whose visuals are lovely to behold and lyrically awash in sensuality and desire, but sets the lives of women back at least a few centuries. 
More...
January 19, 2009:
A movie whose visuals are lovely to behold and lyrically awash in sensuality and desire, but sets the lives of women back at least a few centuries.
More...
June 19, 2008:
Critics Consensus: Get Smart Misses by That Much, Guru Gets No Love
This week at the movies, we've got wacky spies (Get Smart, starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway) and silly self-help specialists (The Love Guru starring Mike Myers and... More...
June 18, 2008:
Arranged marriage at center of cross-cultural drama set in London.
More...
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