Sarah Gavron’s debut feature, “Brick Lane,” about a young woman’s journey from Bangladesh to London as a teenaged bride in an arranged marriage, is a beautifully photographed, quietly observant adaptation of the best-selling 2003 epic novel by Monica Ali. Tannishtha Chatterjee plays Nazneen, with expressive eyes and features that capture the character’s innate curiosity and intelligence. Working with simple, restrained imagery (contrasting cold, and eventually snowy London, with her heightened memories of a humid, water-rich childhood in Bangladesh). There are moments of melodrama, but sentimentality is at a premium, and a subplot involving reactions to 9/11 is handled deftly and the quotidian life of the surely doomed couple is nicely handled. 95m. (Ray Pride)
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