East Is East
Director: Damien O'Donnell
Cast: Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Jordan Routledge
(Miramax, 1999) Rated: M
East is East is set in 1971 in one of those god awful brick industrial
abortions that the English call "towns" and everybody else does their best to
avoid or burn down on public holidays. In this town lives a large Pakistani
family who own and run a Fish & Chip shop. Well, the father owns the shop and
his English wife owns the house that they inhabit in a state of Orwellian family
life. His wife and children work in the shop and he rules the family with an
iron fist, feeling as he does, that he is Pakistani first and English second.
Sadly for him he is alone in this - his family are English first and look on him
as a form of dangerous dinosaur who they both love and fear.
East is East covers the period where the father decides that it is time that
two of his sons get married to good Pakistani girls and thereby increase his
standing in the community. He duly arranges a propitious marriage for the pair
of them and secretly starts the arrangements. This action is the catalyst
for a serious restructuring of power relationships within the house; his family
rebels and exert their independence. This may not sound like the ideal setting
for a high laugh quotient comedy, but it is. The laughs are very frequent,
occasionally vulgar and always more than just "jokes" because this film is a
quality drama with a script written by a person who has a highly
developed sense of the absurdity of human nature as well as a keen eye for the
ridiculous.
A brief example of what I mean by this: about midway through the film, the
father (immaculately played by Om Puri) sets about enforcing the law in "his
bloody house" by violently beating his wife and wayward children with his fists.
This scene is completely without any humour whatsoever. It is brutal, offensive
and scary. However, within minutes the natural wry optimism of the characters
reasserts itself and the film becomes funny again, strengthened by the ugliness
that has passed. Even better, because
the audience now takes the situation that the characters find themselves in more
seriously, the humour gains an extra level of risk and the film’s climax
achieves the aura of being a funny real story as opposed to a lightweight
"humour" concoction.
At its core, East is East is a heavy duty "feel good" comedy with elements of
drama. The performances are, without exception, faultless and the viewer is left
with a feeling of honest and good humour. It made this reviewer feel good for
days after seeing it.
If you are in search of a good night out at the movies, this film will deliver
several hours of happy post-film conversation in some local coffee shop.
Highly recommended.
Rating: 8/10
(C)opyright Alex Rieneck, 2000.
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