Meh. I really expected a lot more from this – from my perspective there seems to be a whole library of more important things to say about the influx of Polish immigrant workers to the UK, and this film seems ultimately more interested in pitying its Strong White Female Protagonist (gasp!) who I found utterly impossible to connect to on any level, even considering her token relationship with The Friendly Pole^TM she meets at the start and gets closer to as her ruse crumbles around her. It makes me feel kind of sick to say it, but the highlight of the movie for me was when one of the workers punches her across the face in the middle of the street. There’s at least one true Ken Loach moment, I guess.

But ultimately, y’know, it just feels really forced and though it really shouldn’t feel this way, I couldn’t help but see the whole overselling of the strong woman theme (there’s a scene early on of an almost caricature-like Fat Man Eating A Sandwich telling the girls with his mouth full how they will inherit the earth etc, and they suggest keeping him as a pet … no kidding) as yet another of those “political correctness gone mad” things – some man (I’d presume) in a suit saying, “and why can’t the evil white boss be a trendsetting girly girl?!” and taking an admittedly noble prospect just too far … whatever, even PC-ness aside, this film really has nothing on Loach’s earlier works, and a film like Dirty Pretty Things has much more to say in a single line about the whole situation (“Because we’re the people you don’t see. We’re the ones who drive your cars and clean your rooms and suck your cocks,”) and the general British feeling about it, than this has in its whole duration – and in that case, there’s even a shockingly happy ending to surprise you.

Honestly, I can only recommend this for that violent street assault on its truly ghastly central character (ugh, did I really just read a comment on the IMDb that said, “It’s A Free World… is refreshing in that it does not demonize the Brits who exploit foreign labour,”???!?) ... and that, I make no hesitation to add, is definitely not a good thing. I’m frankly kinda disturbed by how much it satisfied me, and as anyone who reads my reviews will know, I always consider a film that can have such a deep and complex emotional impact on me as at least one star better than my more reasonable overall rating. That this moral quandary leapt from the tiny telly box in the corner of the living room rather than a big screen movie makes it even more of a marvel. That the film makers then make us feel sick for this monster when her son goes missing is probably some kind of genius. As far as this year’s cinema goes, it’s certainly a must-see, particularly if you’re British (or even Polish; or any immigrant to the country, I guess) ... but it’s by no means as groundbreaking as it could’ve been.

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