Brick Lane

3 stars out of 5

I am not the first person to note that middle-class and working class people have virtually disappeared from American movies. Virtually any movie that pretends to be the least bit realistic is either about the rich or the super-rich. The exceptions are rare. So it is a pleasure to see working class life portrayed in loving detail in Brick Lane, set in London in 2001. After her mother's death, a Bangladeshi girl is married off to a middle-aged man she has never met, and whisked to London, where she leads a life of misery. Based on a controversial novel by Oxford graduate Monica Ali (Bangladeshi dad, English mom), it manages to make Islam seem simultaneously scary and familiar, in general and in the context of 9/11. It's rated PG-13 for very soft core sex and a little bad language. But no American under 13 would have the slightest interest in the film anyway. If you're not frustrated by occasionally unintelligible British accents, and enjoy a film that provokes more thought than mirth, this could be the one for you.