Feeling somewhat isolated
and trapped in her passionless marriage, Nazneen is flattered when
she is the object of some attention from Karim (Christopher Simpson),
who brings her clothing to sew. Her affair with the younger man
begins to go sour after the events of September 11th turn him into
a political radical.
Some of the struggle in translating the power of the novel onto
the big screen likely stems from the inherent meekness of Nazneen.
Her struggles are mostly internal as her main weakness is an inability
to speak her mind. Occasional voiceovers help provide some insights,
as do lingering scenes of household discontent from director Gavron,
but her rebellion isn’t entirely logical or justified.
This also stems from a relatively flat performance from Chatterjee.
She certainly looks the part and convincingly conveys weakness
of character, but is unable to channel internal struggle or rebellion
on the surface, which only exacerbates some of the shortcomings
of the sparse script. As Nazneen’s oldest daughter Shahana,
Naeema Begum is the most convincing of the cast, being simultaneously
caring and understandably disdainful of her parent’s damaged
and disparate relationship. She also helps to bring much needed
tangibility to Nazneen’s penpal relationship with an offscreen
sister, acting as a mirror to the absent character.
Despite these flaws, Brick Lane is an engaging and well photographed
character study. It is just unfortunate that a great deal of identification
and empathy must stem from forces external to the film itself.
- Robert Bell
