My Beautiful Laundrette
Director: Stephen Frears
Year Released: 1985
Rating: 1.5
I tried so hard to keep interest in this tale of a young Pakistani who, with the aid of a rich-but-shifty uncle, and a ruffian from the neighborhood (Daniel Day Lewis) remodels and manages a laundrette in London. Nothing much happens, really - there is the occasional encounter with one of the uncle's associates (who tries extorting money from the "hero"), but it's mostly nonfunctional, anesthetized and intolerably good-natured. Frears and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi's treatment of homosexuality is entirely too self-serving and self-righteous; I was under the impression the two felt like they were the first ones to deal with it honestly in a film. Daniel Day Lewis is magnificent as Johnny, the non-Pakistani, but that's about the only positive thing I can say. The "bubbling" soundtrack, which is annoying, sounds like Alec Guinness' magical invention from The Man in the White Suit.
