Grim flick saved by great performances

Dirty Pretty Things is the story of two illegal immigrants, Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Senay (Audrey Tautou) and their struggle to survive the mean streets of London.

They both work nights in a posh hotel and Okwe spends his days trying to earn some extra cash as a mini-cab driver.

A nosey neighbour lands the troubled duo in hot water with both immigration and their employers and Senay ends up taking a job as a machinist in a backstreet workshop.

Senay, who came to England for a dream life, soon finds out how vulnerable a position she’s in when the factory boss make her a proposition she can’t refuse.

Dirty Pretty Things is fairly unkind to our British neighbours. London is portrayed as a den of vice, corruption and racial exploitation.

While the only three British characters are two immigration bullies and an organ dealer, all the other characters are immigrants who, in one way or another, are portrayed as the serving classes working for their masters.

Nothing is left to the imagination — we are constantly encouraged to hate the system — but when an important moral or ethical issue is raised, it’s forgotten just as quickly.

The film seems to fall between being a hard-hitting social commentary and being just another bit of fluffy entertainment.

The day is saved by the excellent performances of Tautou and Ejiofor. They are compelling as the leads, and, unlike the characters they portray, have very bright futures.

Thriller, 15, ***