In the ostensibly dirty category, we find human suffering as executed by the compelling performances of French actress Audrey Tautou (of Amelia fame) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (along with a wonderfully directed supporting cast). At first, you may be tempted to dismiss these characters' plight and the movie's apparent theme as cliche, and may congratulate yourself for identifying another sentimental immigrant worker story. You know the type: crime in a poverty-stricken urban setting.

You will be right, but you will also be profoundly wrong. While the film's overarching theme may seem mundane and too familiar, most of you will just not be able to personally identify with these characters' realistic desperation. It is in that moment--when you realize that such events as those depicted in the movie actually transpire everyday, and that you live your own life in blissful oblivion--that Frears gets you. What is truly frightening about this movie, in other words, is not the suspense, though that element certainly thrives. What horrified me most as the movie ended was my own complacency (and complicity) as I live out my life in an exploitive, first-world country.

What convincted me, in fact, was my original dismissal of the movie as one of those I don't tend to like because I don't enjoy witnessing "dirty" things.

Lest you despair, however, know that this movie is also about "pretty" things. At its core, it is a love story. The most sentimental of you will swoon. The most hardened will catch yourselves smiling. The genius of the movie is this balance it strikes between light and shadow, pleasure and pain. There will be moments where the plot seems contrived, but hopefully you won't mind--you'll be too busy reflecting on your own life . . .