Dirty Pretty Things
Miramax Films | Release Date: July 18, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
The grandest and most vigorous movie he's (Frears) made in at least a decade. Like Okwe himself, it rises above its limitations, and it's just a little bit bigger than the landscape around it. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
This is a film that insinuates itself deeply into our awareness. It's that rare pulp story with something on its mind, an unnerving, socially conscious thriller with a killer sense of narrative drive. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
All told, the best ensemble cast I've seen this year. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
A crackerjack thriller, laced with labyrinthine mysteries, moral quandaries and unspeakable evil. Read full review
100
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
It's best appraised as a strong ensemble piece, a darkly dreamy slab of social commentary and definitely one of the year's best films. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Once again, Frears -- who has enjoyed a glorious run of diverse, good-quality movies, from "My Beautiful Laundrette" to "High Fidelity" -- has crafted a unique gem. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
An impressive mix of entertainment and social comment, spinning a great mystery even as it confronts an ugly world. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
One of the year's best films. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
This film has a conquering spirit. The dankness is replaced by an optimistic blast of sunlight at the end, a contrast to the earlier lighting dimmed with human misery. Mr. Frears blasts away the blight, though he doesn't have to work to restore Okwe's dignity. It shines through from the start. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's a dark and revealing movie, and, while the ending may not be upbeat enough for those expecting mainstream fare, it offers a measure of hope and a catharsis. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The strength of the thriller genre is that it provides stories with built-in energy and structure. The weakness is that thrillers often seem to follow foreseeable formulas. Frears and his writer, Steve Knight, use the power of the thriller and avoid the weaknesses in giving us, really, two movies for the price of one. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's an exciting but brainy, cross-cultural thriller about modern London and life in a contemporary urban pressure cooker, and it depends more on plot, character and atmosphere than it does on chases and gunfire. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Finally, a real movie! Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Director Stephen Frears...drops down to the underclass in "DPT," examining the ways in which educated illegals fight off despair, poverty and extradition. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The poetic justice strains the verisimilitude of a film otherwise grounded in a tough reality, but there is a guilty satisfaction to it all. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalCollin Levey
The thriller aspect of this work, happily, doesn't overshadow its real beauty -- its stark portrayal of the nightmare despair of aliens, hunted, on edge, prepared to risk all for a new start.
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Steven Knight’s smart, if overly plotted, script delivers social insights tautly wrapped in genre thrills. Read full review
80
SlateDavid Edelstein
The whole movie is like that: gleaming, but with a whiff of the charnel house. Dirty Pretty Things doesn't quite cut to the bone, but it gets as far as a couple of vital organs. Read full review
80
VarietyDavid Stratton
An intelligent and extremely well-made romantic drama that tells an intriguing story with economy and insight. Read full review
80
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
A romance wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a tale of redemption or something like that. To be honest, I'm not sure what the film really is as far as a genre goes. One thing is for sure, it's a damn fine film. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The result is an unwieldy but still compelling look at the plight of immigrants wrapped in a thriller about black-market organ transplants. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Fueled by gripping suspense, dark humor and outraged humanity, the film is a modern horror story that means to shake you, and does. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
This is the meatiest role Tautou has had post-''Amelie'' and she drops the zombie-pixie act for once, giving us a character who's caught in a daily dance between propriety and abandon, and who can only dance faster as desperation sets in. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
By its third act, Okwe has found his solution and Dirty Pretty Things comes across as both clever but a little pat, another British drama about the misfits who pool their resources to defy the oppressive system, though it does not precisely leave a warm glow. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Part urban thriller, part unorthodox love story, this well-acted portrayal of the shadowy realm occupied by London's illegal immigrants is buoyed by stinging social commentary and a surprising twist of intelligent humor. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Slick and sober, fiercely contemporary, and rigged by a fail-safe three-act structure, Dirty Pretty Things nimbly straddles the line between realism and popcorn pop, but it knows which side its bread is buttered on. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Frears has directed a surprisingly sturdy hybrid of thriller and social melodrama, even if the thrills turn ludicrous and the social critique grows a little pat. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
We are entertained, but we see this squalid world clearly. The great cinematographer Chris Menges keeps the images cool and crisp. [15 September 2003, p.100]
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
A fascinating sight to behold. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
Things will not be a big concession-stand movie because the floating heart is our introduction to a cottage industry we hope won't catch on. It is dirtier than pretty, yet Frears finds beauty in the telling. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Frears story's grotesque subject offers an opportunity for a sick audience payoff that is more "Death Wish" than social commentary, and he takes it. It works -- you'll laugh! you'll gulp! -- but it's cheap. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Though worth seeing, should be better than it is. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Ejiofor's subtle, infinitely humane performance is the invisible glue that holds everything together and Chris Menges's darkly shimmering cinematography lends the story a gritty, coolly seductive glamour. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Jammed with banner-ready political rhetoric, and the relentlessness of the lectures is wearying. The plot, on the other hand, is a standard contraption built on enduring urban anxieties and involving a nasty hotel-room trade. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Essentially a TV movie souped up by the divinely skittish cinematography of Chris Menges, the film suffers from a screenplay full of labored attempts at wit by Steven Knight, and characters who barely make it off the page alive. Read full review
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