The Sleeping Dictionary

The film is set in Sarawak in the 1930s under British colonial administration. John Truscott, a young officer played by Hugh Dancy, arrives at his posting and is assigned a local woman; the arrangement is called a sleeping dictionary and is meant to teach him the language and the customs. Selima, played by Jessica Alba, is the woman assigned. The question at its centre is whether an institutionalised exploitation can be told as romance, and the film never quite resolves it. There are moments when it criticises the system, but the narrative keeps moving in the shape of a love story, and the tension between the two weakens it. Bob Hoskins and Brenda Blethyn are in the cast. Guy Jenkin directed. It did not receive a theatrical release and went straight to video. Who it is for: viewers who like colonial-era drama and period production. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a view equal to the seriousness of the subject, since the film both describes colonialism and uses it as romantic backdrop.