Although there has been a renewed interested in women’s football recently, I should state that the timing of me finally watching Bend It Like Beckham, a film I have owned for at least a decade, is entirely coincidental. I just figured that it was time I actually checked it off the list.
Directed by Gurinder Chadha, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Guljit Bindra and Paul Mayeda Berges, this is the tale of two young women who want to pursue their passion for playing football. Jesminda aka Jess (Parminder Nagra) comes from a traditional Indian family who are dead against the idea of her being so “unladylike”, while her friend, Jules (Keira Knightley), has more accepting parents. The two hope to do well enough in a tournament to attract the attention of a talent scout, but that involves Jess lying to her parents as they prepare for her sister’s big wedding day. I hope that event doesn’t clash with an important football game. And I hope the coach, Joe (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), doesn’t create any tension between our two leads.
Although it’s about football, Bend It Like Beckham isn’t really about that at all. It is, of course, but it also very much isn’t. It’s about finding something you love to do, connecting with people who support you in that, and moving into full adulthood while clearly communicating with your family as you set new boundaries and goals. It’s also about cultural differences, with Jess feeling the extra weight of the Indian family traditions that are supposed to inform her fate.
Both Nagra and Knightley are enjoyable in the main roles, although neither seem too convincing in the over-edited moments of action on the pitch. Nagra is the better of the two, a bit more believable throughout, and also given much more of the screentime. The focus is on her character throughout, with Knightley just a main supporting player, and she’s a great presence to spend time with. The same cannot be said of Meyers, someone I have rarely enjoyed seeing in movies. Maybe I have yet to see his best work, but he rarely feels natural and at ease in front of the camera, and his main plot strand here is easily the worst aspect of the movie. Shaheen Khan, Anumpam Kher, and Archie Panjabi are all very good, playing Jess’s mother, father, and sister, respectively, and Frank Harper and Juliet Stevenson are good fun as the parents of Jules. Ameet Chana is also very enjoyable, playing a good friend named Tony, and there is a small role for Shaznay Lewis that shows a potential she never had a chance to fulfil.
Nicely weaving between the more uplifting moments and the dramatic, happy to intersperse realism and honesty with flights of cinematic fancy, Bend It Like Beckham is an easy crowd-pleaser. The pacing is pretty great, there are decent tunes scattered throughout the soundtrack, and the third act has a sense of jubilation that stems from the double-whammy of the football dream and the gorgeous wedding celebrations. This may not be as good as Chadha’s debut feature, the superb Bhaji On The Beach, but it is arguably aimed at a wider audience looking for something cheerful and optimistic.
It may not top the league, in terms of either football films or British comedy dramas, but it’s certainly battling for a decent place in the table.
7/10
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