Movie review: Divining a sense of justice in Stephen Frears’ Sammy and Rosie get laid

Abstract

Film can serve as a means of escape from our everyday life situations. Film can also serve as a powerful medium for political discourse and social commentary. Sammy and Rosie Get Laid is a film that falls into the latter category. It is a an ideal addition to any curriculum concerned with issues of power and justice. Why? If for no other reason, because the screenwriter and director, Hanif Kureishi and Stephen Frears assume their audience is intelligent. Laced together by one absurd scene after another, the film conveys a complex message that is potent in its delivery and imaginative in its presentation. The message suggests that social justice is fleeting. For Kureishi and Frears justice is elusive when we fail to recognize that our struggle for human rights is so often undermined by an unwillingness to let go of our emotional baggage (e.g. vanity, greed, envy, pride, apathy, anger, self‐righteousness). This essay considers why the main characters are in a losing battle as they call for justice on behalf of others and for themselves.