San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann

All told, the best ensemble cast I've seen this year.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

This is a film that insinuates itself deeply into our awareness. It's that rare pulp story with something on its mind, an unnerving, socially conscious thriller with a killer sense of narrative drive.

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

The grandest and most vigorous movie he's (Frears) made in at least a decade. Like Okwe himself, it rises above its limitations, and it's just a little bit bigger than the landscape around it.

Dallas Observer by Gregory Weinkauf

It's best appraised as a strong ensemble piece, a darkly dreamy slab of social commentary and definitely one of the year's best films.

Baltimore Sun by Chris Kaltenbach

A crackerjack thriller, laced with labyrinthine mysteries, moral quandaries and unspeakable evil.

Washington Post by Desson Thomson

Once again, Frears -- who has enjoyed a glorious run of diverse, good-quality movies, from "My Beautiful Laundrette" to "High Fidelity" -- has crafted a unique gem.

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

This film has a conquering spirit. The dankness is replaced by an optimistic blast of sunlight at the end, a contrast to the earlier lighting dimmed with human misery. Mr. Frears blasts away the blight, though he doesn't have to work to restore Okwe's dignity. It shines through from the start.

Washington Post by Stephen Hunter

One of the year's best films.

Chicago Reader by J.R. Jones

An impressive mix of entertainment and social comment, spinning a great mystery even as it confronts an ugly world.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

The strength of the thriller genre is that it provides stories with built-in energy and structure. The weakness is that thrillers often seem to follow foreseeable formulas. Frears and his writer, Steve Knight, use the power of the thriller and avoid the weaknesses in giving us, really, two movies for the price of one.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

It's a dark and revealing movie, and, while the ending may not be upbeat enough for those expecting mainstream fare, it offers a measure of hope and a catharsis.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker

The poetic justice strains the verisimilitude of a film otherwise grounded in a tough reality, but there is a guilty satisfaction to it all.

Wall Street Journal

The thriller aspect of this work, happily, doesn't overshadow its real beauty -- its stark portrayal of the nightmare despair of aliens, hunted, on edge, prepared to risk all for a new start.

Village Voice by Jessica Winter

Slick and sober, fiercely contemporary, and rigged by a fail-safe three-act structure, Dirty Pretty Things nimbly straddles the line between realism and popcorn pop, but it knows which side its bread is buttered on.

New York Magazine (Vulture) by Peter Rainer

Though worth seeing, should be better than it is.