Film Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

My Beautiful Laundrette
Directed by Stephen Frears
MGM Home Entertainment 07/85 DVD/VHS Feature Film
R - adult situations

This excellent British film was directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Pakistani writer Hanif Kureishi. It offers a grim portrait of societal disintegration during the 1980s in Great Britain, a country rife with racial tensions and a thriving underground economy.

Among the interesting characters are Omar, a young Pakistani who turns to business instead of education to get ahead; Nasser, his rich wheeler-dealer uncle who stakes him as an entrepreneur; Johnny, Omar’s homosexual lover who must choose between him and the friendship of his fascist punk comrades; Tania, Nasser’s promiscuous daughter; and Rachel, Nasser’s middle-aged mistress. The superb performances by the cast, which includes Saeed Jaffrey, Gordon Warnecke, Shirley Anne Field, and Daniel Day Lewis, add clout to this provocative film.

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by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat