Brick Lane (2008)

Nazneen, a seventeen-year-old girl from a Bangladeshi village, is sent to marry a stranger after her mother commits suicide. At the start of Brick Lane, Sarah Gavron's sensitive adaptation of Monica Ali's best-selling novel, we see Nazneen sharing an idyllic moment with her sister, playing joyously in a beloved landscape. For the duration of the film, our heroine longs for this life she did not have and the sister she has lost, while she is forced to inhabit her less desirable present.

Tannisha Chatterjee plays the grown Nazneen, an unhappy, unassimilated woman with two daughters of her own, the memory of a dead infant son, and an obese husband she doesn't love. Fortunately, Chatterjee is a fine actress; it's impossible not to root for her character's path to self-discovery.

No new ground is explored, however, in this handsomely constructed film. Nazneen's story seems familiar every step of the way – including her extramarital affair with Karim (Christopher Simpson), the winsome younger man who brings her sewing to supplement the family income. What does not ring true, however, was the easy ending of Brick Lane. A new and emboldened Nazneen takes over the reins of her life and her daughters, too, but never did I believe that her husband would let his family go.

***

Starring: Tannisha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik, Debjani Deb, Kusimika Neager, Christopher Simpson
Directed by: Sarah Gavron
Produced by: Tessa Ross, Paula Jalfon (II), Duncan Reid
Running Time: 1 hr. 41 min.
Release Date: June 20th, 2008 (limited)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sexuality and brief strong language.