Brick Lane (2007)

65% of critics liked it
(98 reviews)
58% of users liked it
(43,799 ratings)

Director Sarah Gavron and screenwriter Abi Morgan team to adapt author Monica Ali's award-winning novel about a young girl from Bangladesh who finds the spark in her soul slowly fading after traveling to London for an arranged marriage. As a child, Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) was always told… More Director Sarah Gavron and screenwriter Abi Morgan team to adapt author Monica Ali's award-winning novel about a young girl from Bangladesh who finds the spark in her soul slowly fading after traveling to London for an arranged marriage. As a child, Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) was always told that she was a survivor. Now, as a young adult, she must contend with the sudden death of her mother. Her father arranges her marriage to a man she has never met, and she gets shuttled off from her quaint village to a working-class neighborhood in East London, as the bride of Chanu (Satish Kaushik), where she earns extra income via sewing. At first, the newlywed Nazneen does her best to be a devoted wife and loving mother. It's a lonely life, and as the pompous ineffectual Chanu does his best to fit into British society, the bored housewife finds herself increasingly drawn to Karim (Christopher Simpson), the hotheaded fellow who delivers pants to her door for various sewing jobs. The two lapse into an impassioned affair, but Chanu grows increasingly determined to marry Nazreen himself, especially as his own politics become more and more radical in the wake of 9/11. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 42 min.
Directed By: Sarah Gavron
Written By: Monica Ali, Abi Morgan, Laura Jones
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Jun 20, 2008 Limited
On DVD: Jan 13, 2009
Studio: Sony Pictures

Critic Reviews

Susan Walker, Toronto Star
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.
Tom Long, Detroit News
Small, intimate and achingly modern, Brick Lane is a lovely study involving both one woman's awakening and the inevitability of cross-cultural pollination.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
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.
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
[A] quietly observant and quite beautiful adaptation of the Monica Ali novel.
Peter Schilling, Minneapolis Star Tribune
As the plot unfolds, it becomes apparent that director Sarah Gavron also finds attractive people more sympathetic, and this is Brick Lane's undoing.
Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader
Its flat, static quality belies the novel's richness.
Kelly Vance, East Bay Express
A warm bath in comfortable platitudes.
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
The cinematography is gorgeous, the through-narrative is strong but subtle, and Gavron coaxes performances out of her actors that blend well with the overall tone and atmosphere.
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze
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.
Kam Williams, NewsBlaze
The sort of empowerment flick that could get a fatwa issued against the intrepid director daring enough to make a picture about Islam's subjugation of females.
Kevin Courrier, Boxoffice Magazine
A blandly earnest coming-of-age story.
Liz Braun, Jam! Movies
Brick Lane is lovely to look at and the performances, particularly from Chatterjee and Kaushik, are delightful.
Jean Lowerison, San Diego Metropolitan
Despite the fine performances, Brick Lane comes across as a nice soap opera when it promised much more.
Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
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.
Sarah Boslaugh, Playback:stl
As long as Brick Lane remains focused on Nazneen, it succeeds admirably.

Read all 15 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Lady D

As a Westernised woman watching this film you really feel a sense of imprisionment and control the main character felt within the marriage and you really see the film through her eyes all the way through. It isn?t quite the story the synopsis explains it to be, which as it happens… More
As a Westernised woman watching this film you really feel a sense of imprisionment and control the main character felt within the marriage and you really see the film through her eyes all the way through. It isn?t quite the story the synopsis explains it to be, which as it happens turns out to be a much better film because of it, it creates a gritty, realistic plot with the post 911 affects in the background story. A very enjoyable Drama with depth and perspective, I was reminded lots of the Color Purple whilst watching this film.
Wahida K

A very touching story about a Woman filled with Hopes and Dreams which are shattered in to thousand pieces later.
Jens S

This calm and quiet film tells the story of a Bangladeshi woman that gets married to far away London, where we find her 16 years later with husband and daughters, struggling in her uneventful life and still hoping to return back home to her sister. How a couple of events change her… More
This calm and quiet film tells the story of a Bangladeshi woman that gets married to far away London, where we find her 16 years later with husband and daughters, struggling in her uneventful life and still hoping to return back home to her sister. How a couple of events change her mind about her dreams is carried by unknown but very natural and talented actors and a gorgeous cinematography. And although nothing terribly exciting happens throughout the film we still hope for Nazneen to live a happier life and follow her story, as the events of 9/11 make her life even a little more complicated. In its best moments, where only small gestures tell us so much about the characters, that's touching and heart-warming, but of course little spectacular and sometimes a little slow. Still worth seeing for people with the right mind set.
Ross C

A look into the life of a Bangladeshi immigrant living in Brick Lane, London, with her family & husband from an arranged marriage. It's a fairly average, pleasant TV drama. The most interesting character development actually centres around her husband.
Kylie B

Good as a stand alone, but stilted if you view it as an adaptation.
Walter M

In "Brick Lane," Nazneen(Tannishtha Chatterjee) has been living in London for the past sixteen years since the suicide of her mother and an arranged marriage at the age of seventeen that brought her from her native Bangladesh. Her husband(Satish Kaushik) is an aging,… More
In "Brick Lane," Nazneen(Tannishtha Chatterjee) has been living in London for the past sixteen years since the suicide of her mother and an arranged marriage at the age of seventeen that brought her from her native Bangladesh. Her husband(Satish Kaushik) is an aging, overweight university professor up for a promotion who talks a lot, never letting his wife get a word in, and with the exception of a late scene, says little. Even with two teenaged daughters, their marriage is loveless and he is incensed when she brings in clothes to sew for extra money. More soap opera than feminist or political, "Brick Lane" is a slight, yet sincere and well-meaning, movie about the nature of national identity. The movie takes place in the recent past at a key moment in history when Nazneen has been in London long enough when any sort of culture shock has faded but still remains homesick for her native land where her troubled younger sister still resides and is torn between identifying as either Muslim or Bangladeshi. Both daughters, born in London, feel differently of course. To highlight the cultural differences, the squalor of inner city London with its racists cannot compare to the lush fields of Bangladesh.
Mark A

A beautiful film, beautifully told. Nasneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) is a young woman, sent to England by her father in Bangladesh to marry Chanu (Christopher Simpson). Raising two daughters, exchanging letters with her sister back home, and tending to her husband are all she knows… More
A beautiful film, beautifully told. Nasneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) is a young woman, sent to England by her father in Bangladesh to marry Chanu (Christopher Simpson). Raising two daughters, exchanging letters with her sister back home, and tending to her husband are all she knows until a series of encounters open Nasneen to a world of other possibilities. It is a story about finding and experiencing many different kinds of love and making choices when it seems that there are no choices left. Ms Chatterjee is a quiet exotic beauty who brought just the right amount of religious devotion and worldly curiosity mixed with caution to her role. Mr Simpson played the eternally optimistic Chanu with a joyfulness mixed with naivete that the role required. The two young girls, torn between the requirements of their religion, the obligations of family, and their desire to fit in brought another level of conflict within the family dynamic that played true. The clash of cultures even within the seemingly monolithic Islamic enclave pervaded the film but never descended into caricature nor did it gloss over the competing passions of the community. A joy to behold.
Daisy M

<a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i30.tinypic.com/hs3ss6.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a> for sexuality and strong language. Brick Lane was a movie of a young… More
<a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i30.tinypic.com/hs3ss6.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a> for sexuality and strong language. Brick Lane was a movie of a young Bangladesh girl, who send send to England to be in a arranged marriage. The lead actress did a good job with her facial expressions, the pain she was carrying, the loveless marriage she was in, all you could see from her face.She had a good relationship with her sister when she was in Bangladesh, and she missed that, so she kept contact with her through letters.The movie portrait the Muslim culture, keeping away the woman right towards man. I found it a beautiful movie that brought delicate issues to the viewer.
Leo L

Here's an interesting movie that is beautifully depicted and is filled with love, happiness, and self-discovery. The story plot centralizes around the life of Nazneen, a young woman who comes from a village. She moves to London to enter an arranged marriage with an older man.… More
Here's an interesting movie that is beautifully depicted and is filled with love, happiness, and self-discovery. The story plot centralizes around the life of Nazneen, a young woman who comes from a village. She moves to London to enter an arranged marriage with an older man. Living a quiet life, she is dutifully completing her household and wifely chores. She does this without much complaint, and certain events arises that enabled her to become independent and self-sufficient. She learns to speak her mind and heart, with the compliance of a strong-willed daughter. She embraces this new part of herself. Great cast- Tannishtha Chatterjee, Christopher Simpson, and Satish Kaushik stars. Definitely worth seeing! Amazing music.