Brick Lane (15)

Adapted from Monica Ali's 2003 novel, this portrait of an immigrant marriage is a mixed bag. Tannishtha Chatterjee is very good as Nazneen, a thirtysomething Bangladeshi who misses her sister back home and meekly endures an arranged marriage with London-born Chanu (Satish Kaushik), a feckless, debt-ridden Pooter. Then, through her work as a seamstress, Nazneen falls in love with a younger man, Karim (Christopher Simpson), who spearheads a local uprising of Muslim militancy.

Director Sarah Gavron brings a lyrical touch to Nazneen's early years, but she never really conveys much of Brick Lane's texture; we get the idea of her heroine's narrow, repressed life, but not enough of the supposedly vibrant life she's been missing. The emotional turnaround is also too abruptly managed – how are we to sympathise with Chanu after he has been exposed as a chauvinist and wastrel? It's all a little underwhelming.