And writing my Atonement review reminded me I wanted to write a few words about Brick Lane as well.

Again another book I’d read and enjoyed which gave me high hopes for the film - and it mostly fulfilled them.

The story follows a few months in the life of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi woman who moves to the eponymous area of London at the age of 17 to marry an older man. The main focus of the film takes place 15 years down the line, with Nazneen the mother to two daughters and her husband Chanu finally exhausting his supply of optimism for life in London and wanting to return “home”.

Aside from the frequent (perhaps too frequent) flashbacks to Nazneen’s childhood in a small village in Bangladesh, most of the film takes place in the family’s small flat and on the streets around Brick Lane itself. The camera work in the flat is great and gives a wonderful sense of voyeurism (like you’re watching a reality show) and claustrophobia. My favourite scene for camera work is when Nazneen’s oldest daughter Shahana is bouncing around in a pair of ‘borrowed’ jeans and the camera swings back and forth around the mother and daughter combo. And speaking of Shahana, I utterly adored the interaction between her (played by Naeema Begum) and younger sister Bibi (Lana Rahman) - wonderful work by Naeema in the the tooth-brushing scene especially.

I was quite disappointed with the characterisation of Chanu (Satish Kaushik) to start with - it felt cliché - but the portrayal got fairer as the film went on and I really felt for him at the end. I also like the progression of Karim’s character in the film - the subtle changes to his costume as he becomes more interested in religion - and thought the interaction between Karim (Christopher Simpson) and Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) at the start of their relationship felt very real: I could completely imagine what it felt like with all the coy smiles and Nazneen’s girlish excitement when she tries on the sequin boob-tube.

It is a while since I read the book now so I may be wrong but I seem to remember the community group having a slightly more positive outlook - concerned for safety, yes, but also organising a community event to celebrate different cultures too - and if I didn’t totally invent that, I would have liked to have seen that included in the film too. I felt the ending was very positive though - for Nazneen and the girls at least - and while the snow angels scene rang a little false, it could have easily been a lot worse and more heavy-handed than it was.