Brick Lane.

"Sarah Gavron's feature version of Monica Ali's novel represents a modest slimming down of the original's dimensions; what emerges could almost be described as a chamber-piece, set in one cramped east London flat," writes Peter Bradshaw. "Perhaps venturing out into the real Brick Lane would have been impolitic, considering the unedifying row that surrounded its filming, and some might argue that there is a sense of withdrawal or retreat in the movie as a whole." The Guardian also offers an accompanying "quick world tour" of major cities as they've been depicted on film.

"In every respect, Brick Lane is a shadow of its source material," writes Ryan Gilbey in the New Statesman. "I was sure the film would show some guts once it turned to the post-9/11 hostility toward Muslims. But all that happened was that everyone started talking as though they knew they were characters in a film about multicultural Britain."

"Whatever the arguments against it - and we must remember that Stephen Frears's My Beautiful Laundrette was savaged in some quarters for suggesting that not all Pakistanis were heterosexuals - Gavron's debut is honest, sincere and sympathetic," writes Derek Malcolm in the Evening Standard. "In fact, it is the product of a first-time director who is clearly promising and probably more than that."

"Writers Abi Morgan and Laura Jones use regular flashbacks to contrast the grimy housing outside to her bucolic past in Bangladesh, an apparently eternal summer in which young children gambolled and plunged into picturesque lakes," writes the Telegraph's Sukhdev Sandhu. "Unfortunately the romance at the heart of Brick Lane never comes alive."

Wendy Ide talks with Gavron for the London Times.

Earlier: "There were threats of demonstrations, book burnings and even violence among some members of the Bangladeshi community. But was the controversy surrounding the filming of Brick Lane as heated as the media suggested? Not at all, writes author Monica Ali."

Posted by dwhudson at November 16, 2007 12:36 PM