Movie: Bend It Like Beckham
Starring Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers
Written by Paul Mayeda Berges, Guljit Bindra, Gurinder Chadha
Directed by Gurinder Chadha (Kintop Films)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes


Director Gurinder Chada has created a fine little feel-good production in Bend It Like Beckham. It's the story of Jess, engagingly played by Parminder Nagra, an ethnic Sikh who has been born and raised in England. Ignoring her roots, Jess worships soccer superstar David Beckham and dreams of playing the game herself. She certainly can whip the local boys and she gets noticed by Jules (Knightley) who invites her to try out for the all-girl team she plays on. Jess can't resist, even though she knows her parents (Anupam Kher and Shaheen Khan) will be horrified at the mere thought of it. Worse, she finds herself falling for the coach, (Velvet Goldmine's Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) but her friend Jules has fallen for him first.

BILB could have been a pretty standard sports yarn, but what makes it interesting is that it's also an inside look at a micro-culture surviving within a dominant culture. This conflict creates the same sort of endearing quirkiness that made My Big Fat Greek Wedding such a hit. Jess's mother especially is a comic delight. Like MBFGW there's a wedding in this story, Jess's sister's, which figures heavily in the plot and is also an excuse for some great Indian dance music on the soundtrack. In fact all the music in the film is terrific. Chadha deserves credit for showing us how Indian people live their lives in England, but she still maintains enough distance from the culture to poke fun at it.

Like most sports films there's the Big Game at the end but the shots of hitting the ball aren't choreographed out to the high degree that you'd find in some films; still there is a great storyteller at work here. Bend It Like Beckham is nothing if not thoroughly enjoyable.

The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the film? Yes
Would I go to see it again? Yes, this film's got a lot of heart.

© 2003 - Rusty Pipes