Brick Lane

Brick Lane was an interesting feminist film which gives insight into a woman named Nazneen’s life. Nazneen used to live in Bangladesh, but when she was a teenager she moved to London with her husband. The film shows Nazneen’s unhappiness in the life that she is leading. Even though she has two daughters that she loves very much, she misses her sister back home and is living with a husband who she does not love. Her husband’s character is important to understand when talking about this film. At the beginning, her husband appears to be cold-hearted, indifferent, and out of touch with his family’s feelings. However, his character evolves throughout the movie. It becomes apparent that he begins to make changes in order to try to make his family happier. For example, he plans for them to go on a vacation and he spends his time taking pictures and leading them to all of the sights that they should see. At first, the audience hates Nazneen’s husband. But, towards the end of the movie I almost felt sorry for him. He was trying to make his marriage work and be more attentive to his wife even though she was having an affair behind his back, he showed true pain and hurt when he got into an argument with his daughter, he made a very bold and intelligent speech at the Muslim meeting, and he was going back to Bangladesh while leaving his family behind. He evolves from a very simple character to one that is much more complex and this allows people to sympathize with him because he is depicted as a more realistic human being. Another important aspect of this movie to discuss would be Nazneen’s affair. At first this affair appears to be with a man that she could pursue a relationship with after her husband leaves. However, we soon come to understand that Nazneen was only physically attracted to this man. The affair is more of a representation of Nazneen’s newfound freedom rather than an actual love that she will pursue because she soon finds things about him that she does not like.