Bend It Like Beckham (2003, DVD)

Bend It Like Beckham tells a simple tale of a young Indian girl named Jess who enjoys playing football with the guys. Sadly her parents are not to keen on the idea of her playing football, but grudgingly allow her to continue playing in the park until a young white girl sees her and asks her to join the local girls team. They refuse, but following her dreams she pretends to have a job at HMV, signs up with the girls team and takes up training. While this happens she finds herself developing an attraction to the local coach, who, being a white man, would be totally rejected by her parents.

It's a story about cultural differences, yes, but it's also examines not only the cultural differences, but the similarities too. The 2 main characters, Jess and Jules, both have mothers who are opposed to the football for, what initially appears to be, very different reasons. Jess's mother is a strict Indian, and wants her to take on the traditional Indian role in order to find a good husband. Jules mom, in comparison, is concerned that by playing a mans game, like football, that she will not be able to get a boyfriend. In the end, despite their differing ideas on commitment, both the religious Eastern woman and the laid back Western woman, were concerned with the same things, finding their daughter a man. Or more specifically their daughters future happiness and financial security, but both fail to understand their daughters actual feelings.

This all works because of a talented cast though. Most are successful, managing to convey their characters believably enough to impress. Yet there were 3 actresses in particular that stand out. Parminder K. Nagra who plays Jess manages to get across the frustrations and desires of a character, but never once overplays them. Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean) plays Jules, and manages to get the characters fun, bubbly nature into the lime light, and make even a young tom boy like Jules look good. Yet the one I had the biggest blast with was Shaheen Khan who played Jess's mom. She's playing a cultural stereotype, and not exactly the most positive character in history, but rather than allow this to be offensive, she takes the character and plays it with just the right amount of humour.

Unfortunately, despite a lot of positive points with Bend It Like Beckham, it remains imperfect. I felt the football could have been better used, less Beckham though, one scene was too much of him, but football is such a tense game that to show a few simple flashes of the finale felt like a major missed potential. Of course any American reading this is probably immensely grateful that the football wasn't given much portrayal, but I'm English and I wanted more of The Beautiful Game.

The other part was a moment where Jess is feeling down, and her best friend reveals that he is gay, but would be rejected by the Indian culture if it gets out. This same twist seems to be used in every underdog film and every cultural clash movie in existence, and, like every cliche, it's lost it's power and is verging on the annoying.

Other than those, admittedly minor points, Bend It Like Beckham remains a solid, fun movie with a well intentioned heart. I recommend it gladly.

This has been my entry into the Lean-N-Mean write-off.