It was set in 2001 London. It tells the story of a woman who grew up in the jungle of Bangladesh who was arranged to marry an "educated" man living abroad. She finds herself in a loveless marriage to an older overweight man who thinks more of himself and money than he does his wife or children. You can feel the sorrow and pain she feels as she goes about her life. Her existence is mundane, her youth was taken from her and she was forced away from her family to an unknown world where little happiness exists. She lives this way for 16 years, although still keeps her youthful beauty. She has two beautiful daughters but still married to this selfish pig of a husband. One day a new woman moves in next door and invites her for tea. The woman is a seamstress and intrigues her to start sewing. She starts her sewing job against the wishes of her husband. He says that if a wife works it says that the husband can't make enough to support his family. It takes a blow to his pride, a virtue too close to his heart.
Although he isn't too fond of it, she starts sewing and every week a new delivery of sewing materials comes in for her to work on. The supplies are delivered by a handsome young Muslim. Although the woman is uncomfortable with another man coming into her house while her husband is away, she lets him and they form a friendship. This friendship leads into something more, and before she knows it, she finds herself in a passionate affair. Here are where my thoughts come in. At this point in the movie I am rooting for the affair, even getting butterflies in my own stomach when they are together. I am a hopeless romantic and I love the mushy gushy stuff. But what I didn't like was what it made me feel as the movie went on... The story progresses, and to spare you the details, her husband decides to move back to Bangladesh and start a new life over there. The story then shows a series of events that portrays the husband as more lovable than previously seen and the woman actually leaves the man she was having an affair with, although they had spoken about her divorcing her husband and marring him. She reunites with her husband, although he goes back to Bangladesh and she stays there with her two daughters.
The movie ended up on the right side of the moral tracks, but it left me saddened inside. I wasn't sad that the wrong thing was done, because she did do the right thing... I was sad that she didn't end up with the handsome man who she was passionately "in love" with. I was angry that she ended up with the fat old man with a greasy comb-over. I was mad that she didn't divorce her husband and run off with another man. And that is why this movie made me mad- because of the way it made me feel. I actually wanted her to leave her husband. It is so interesting sometimes how I can (and I assume many women out there) get wrapped up in the emotion of it all and forget about right and wrong, forget about black and white. This movie was a good reminder of what love is really about. It isn't the lust you have for any piece of meat walking down Chicago avenue... it is about real love that comes from the Father and trickles down to the love between two people God has put together.
Here is a good quote from the movie...
"No one told me there were different kinds of love... the kind that starts big and slowly wears away. It seems that you will never use it up then one day it is finished. Then there is the kind that you do not notice at first which adds a little bit to itself everyday like an oyster makes a pearl, grain by grain, a jewel from the sand, that is the kind that I have come to know..."
