My Review of My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

 

Written by Hanif Kureishi

Directed by Stephen Frears 

Omar: "When we were in school, you and your friends were kicking me around the place. And what are you doing now? Washing my floor and that's how I like it."

Continuing my look into LGBT movies for the month of June, I had to watch one that came out the same year I was born. I've heard of this film but until this month, I'd never properly seen it. I'm now glad to say that I have.

This movie focused on a Pakistani-Brirish man named Omar Ali (Gordon Warnecke). It's South London in the mid 1980s and Omar's looking after his father, Hussein (Roshan Seth) as the latter has descended into alcoholism and no longer works as the left wing journalist he once was.

Being a caregiver isn't a vocation that Omar particularly wanted for his life, not to bear the brunt of his father's resentment over the social politics of the time. Of course, there's other family members who have bigger plans for Omar, much to the latter's reluctance.

Throughout the movie, there's a constant attemot to marry Omar off to his cousin, Tania (Rita Wolf) by his uncle, Nasser (Saaed Jaffrey). It's a prospect that doesn't appeal to either Omar or Tania but it's the latter who made sure that neither of them had to go through with it.

Unwanted attempts of arranged marriage aside, Nasser had Omar running his friend's laundrette and working with Omar was his lover and general bad boy, Johnny Burfoot (Daniel Day-Lewis). Johnny had something of a fascist past that the movie explored as well as the growing tension between the Pakistani and punk communities within the movie.

The exploration into Omar and Johnny's relationship certainly had some of its ups and downs along with illegal activities in the mix. Saying that, it's a relationship that did manage to endure throughout with a surprise happy note ending for the two of them during the last scene.

- The movie was originally shot for Channel 4 before it ended up getting a theatrical release. Gary Oldman nearly played Johnny before Daniel Day-Lewis was cast.

- This was one of the first films that publicly made jokes about Margaret Thatcher.

- Standout music: Aaron Copland's Fanfare For The Common Man.

- Chronology: South London in the mid 1980s.

My Beautiful Laundrette was a delight of a movie with very compelling performances from both Gordon Warnecke and Daniel Day-Lewis. There's a good exploration into class and race issues of the time along with the romance between Omar and Johnny. 

Rating: 8 out of 10