Brick Lane Critic Reviews

Easily, the best character in the film is Nazneen's tubby husband, who's been angling to take the family back to Bangladesh.Read the full review

Tells a story we think we already know, but we're wrong: It has new things to say within an old formula.Read the full review

One of those feminist cries in the dark in which the heroine, a saintly sufferer, is more admirable than interesting.Read the full review

Brick Lane has been whittled down from Monica Ali's expansive 2003 novel into a glossy but overly efficient drama that, like Nazneen's husband, is ultimately too ineffectual to make much of a dent.Read the full review

The characters in Brick Lane must define themselves and determine where "home" is before they can move forward, and that dramatic conflict lies at the heart of this motion picture.Read the full review

Has beautiful scenery and some enjoyable moments but leaves the viewer feeling the need to find the book to get the rest of the story.Read the full review

Beautifully acted and written so its themes are touched upon glancingly rather than with full force.Read the full review

Certainly touching, even heart-rending at times, and it mostly steers clear of the didacticism and sentimentality its subject matter often invites. But it never takes the full measure of its modest heroine, and makes her world a bit too small.Read the full review

Brick Lane comes far too late to be groundbreaking, and tries to do too much to be fully coherent, but its talent for avoiding obvious choices on all fronts, narratively and stylistically, make it worth a look.Read the full review