MINI MOVIE REVIEW:
"Bend it Like Beckham" is a sweet hearted movie about a high school girl who defies the wishes of her strict Sikh parents in her desire for success on the football (soccer) field. Now living with her family in a small flat in London, she practices football in the local park where she often bests her fellow Indian male friends at their own game. While doing this, she catches the eye of a player for the West London Hounslow Harriers, a female football team, who then invites her to play for the team.

Thrilled to be invited to play, Jess is heartbroken when her parents inform her that this is not how she should spend her young life. She should study hard, learn how to cook spicy Indian dishes, and make herself ready for whichever future husband her parents will select for her. Furthermore, young girls like Jess don't run around "half naked" on a playing field in front of men.

Jess turns to subterfuge to get out of the house and over to the soccer field. Whether feigning sickness, lying about a non existent summer job, wheedling extra money out of her mother for football shoes, or stashing her football clothes behind a bush in front of the house, it all seems to be so easy until the truth eventually comes out, as it always does.

"Bend It Like Beckham" is a wonderful movie for families, especially those with teenaged girls. Perseverance, familial love, loyalty, tolerance, and the desire to excel are all positive images along with a wish for all parents to be wise enough to let their children find a different path in life.
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MOVIE CRITIQUE:
The star of "Bend It Like Beckham," Jesminder Bhamra (Parminder K. Nagra), or, more simply, Jess, carries this picture as it could not have been a success without her being believable in every aspect of her rather difficult young life. She presents the picture of a sensitive, intelligent girl who is wise and mature beyond her years.

This movie is filled with vibrant contemporary English music and even more vibrant and colorful Indian customs and family life. The Bhamra family wedding of their oldest daughter is somewhat reminiscent of last year's great success, "Monsoon Wedding." These people may be strict in their religious practices, but they sure know how to throw a party!

"Bend It Like Beckham" has several story lines which, like life, more or less intersect with each other, some times neatly and at other times rather messily.

There is the story of Jess' older sister, who has had the temerity of falling in love with a young man who has not been selected by her parents. The Bhamra family has to cope with this crisis as the movie opens.

There is a small story about Jess' friend and classmate, Tony (Ameet Chana), a young man who would otherwise have turned out to be a fine potential mate for Jess until he confesses to her that he is gay. This lifestyle is forbidden by their religious sect, and the anguished Tony finds support in his friendship with Jess along with some solace in his observing her fight to break free from her parents with her desire to play football.

"Bend It Like Beckham" is also the story about Juliette Paxton (Keira Knightley), Jess' football buddy and erstwhile romantic rival. While their friendship is misinterpreted by many, Juliette, or "Jules," also has the support and love of her parents (Frank Harper and Juliet Stevenson). Although often clueless about their daughter, the Paxtons do everything for her with the best of intentions.  

In contrast with the Bhamra and Paxton families, the coach of their Hounslow Harriers girls football team, Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) has long been estranged from his father. Juliettte has admired Joe for quite a while from a respectable distance, but Joe instead falls for Jess as soon as he meets her. He is attracted to her not only for her exotic beauty but also for her strength of character and her desire to excel. He admires her maturity and envies her for having a loving, supportive family. This movie is also the story of their budding relationship.

Finally, there is the latent bitterness of Jess' dad as a one time champion cricket player who was forced off an English team in earlier, more bigoted, times because he would not play without removing his turban. He loves to play cricket and his giving it up many years before has been a matter of great personal disappointment. Now his own daughter shows promise in another sport which forces him to confront his own feelings about his inability to play at a sport that he loves. Will he now deny his own daughter the thrill of sports competition that others have denied him?

I love the heartfelt roles of the parents involved who each love their daughters in their own way and all of whom are forced to adjust their dreams for their children as time goes by to something that more closely approximates the dreams of their daughters. The Paxton and Bhamra parents are complex people who love their girls and don't want to fail as parents. They are not stupid mopes as is so often the case now in movies directed at teenagers. This is a very welcome picture of family life and another reason to recommend this movie.

There is a lot going on in "Bend It Like Beckham" in its almost two hour running time. Like much of life, not every loose end is tied up as neatly as we would like. But this is a sweet, charming movie about two very attractive and very likable young girls. There is also a freshness and an innocence to this movie that is very endearing.

Don't expect to see anything more than is advertised here, for "Bend It Like Beckham" is not a complex movie. This is not a riveting story nor is it cutting edge film making. This is a simple story about real people told in a straightforward manner. But it is well acted and well done, and that is enough for me. My one small complaint would be the fact that Jess' playing in this movie is so tightly edited that I am left with the assumption, rightly or wrongly, that Ms. Nagra cannot play football at all and was selected to be the star of this movie for other reasons.
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MOVIE SYNOPSIS:
Jess is an otherwise obedient child of strict Sikh parents who have emigrated from India and who then do their best to protect her and her older sister from the more open culture of England. The Bhamra family lives in a small duplex flat in London with a pretty park across the street. Mr. Bhamra (Anupam Kher) seems to be relatively successful as he drives a late model Mercedes sedan.

Jess is a pretty Indian girl attracted to the much more open customs of England although she has to date been a dutiful daughter. Her only form of rebellion has been to cover her bedroom walls with pictures of her idol, the English football star, David Beckham (who has a small cameo in this movie). Beckham is apparently able to score goals more often by putting a spin on his shots that prevents the opposing goalies from blocking them.

He serves as the inspiration for Jess, who seems to be blessed with a natural talent for football, thus the title of the movie. Jess often plays football with her male Indian friends and neighbors, and her natural talent at maneuvering the ball is so good that she is able to evade them with ease. Observing her quietly from the sidelines, Juliette Paxton (Keira Knightley), approaches Jess one day and tells her that she is good enough to try out for the Hounslow Harriers, a West London female football team.

Thrilled with the prospect, Jess takes Jules up on her offer and quickly travels to West London to meet the team coach, Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). Joe is a somewhat embittered young man as a knee injury had sidelined his budding professional football career. Now he has been reduced to the lowly job of coaching a girls football team when he had hoped for much better.

Jess makes the team after some initial qualms about her wearing football clothes that show the burn scars on her leg. She then enters a long period where she hides this fact from her parents. Her normally open manner now hides a conniving interior as she finesses her mother for two pairs of shoes for her older sister's wedding when, in fact, one of those pairs will have soccer cleats on them. During the summer months Jess pretends she has a job to which she has to commute by bus. She stashes her football clothes in a bush in front of the house so that she is able quickly to shed her Indian clothing shortly after leaving for "work" each day.

However, Jess is too young or too unlucky to think of every contingency. A two day football trip to Germany is covered by a weekend visit to Jules' house, but the team's picture in the newspaper unmasks this lie. This newspaper picture alerts her parents to her deception and slows her down for a while, but soon Jess has dreamed up other stories to cover her continued playing.

Meanwhile, her older sister has committed the almost unpardonable sin of falling in love with the man of her choice instead of waiting for a husband to be selected for her. The two sets of parents reluctantly give their blessing to the union, but later the other parents retract theirs when they spy Jess and Jules hugging each other at a bus stop. They assume the two to have a lesbian relationship, and they surely don't want their beloved son to marry into the family of a lesbian.

Once again a firestorm rages within the Bhamra family, and at the worst of all possible times. A scout from the United States is coming over to view the Hounslow Harriers with the possibility of extending full collegiate scholarships to those girls deemed to be capable of competing at soccer in America. The now very disconsolate Jess mopes around her home deeply saddened by the knowledge that not only is she now forbidden to play football, but also that the scout will observe her team playing on the very same day that she is called to help her family celebrate the wedding of her older sister.