Customer Reviews

Bend It Like Beckham (Widescreen)

5 star:		(103)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Cultures clash when talented young Jesminder Bhamra (Parminder Nagra), an Indian girl living with her family in England, earns a spot on a girls' soccer team. Running around in shorts in public is simply not appropriate for a proper young lady, and the time needed for practice would clash with Jess's many obligations, such as preparing for the wedding of her older sister (Archie Panjabi), learning how to cook a proper Indian meal (including vegetarian), and getting into a good school. Jess is soon trying to juggle her home life and her exciting new soccer life, which includes a new best friend (Keira Knightley) and a love interest (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers).

This is a very exhuberant and entertaining film. It follows the basic formula of a coming-of-age film but does it without any missteps. The cast is wonderful. Special mention goes to Anupam Kher and Shaheen Khan, who play Jess's parents. Writer/director Gurinder Chadha (with co-writers Paul Mayeda Berges and Guljit Bindra) has made a very entertaining movie.

What makes a great movie is that the viewer should leave watching this film with a good taste in the mouth that "the movie was good. I enjoyed it." This movie delivers exactly that. The movie shows how traditional values get in the way of the dreams of a British Indian girl looks at. Making "curry", cooking "roti", and singing praises of her husband is a cliché of any Indian girl. How about playing football (soccer in British) Sounds strange? Well, that is what you are all set to witness. A British Indian girl is just about excellent playing football (soccer) and wants to excel in it. But that's not her parent's cup of tea. More than that, she falls in love with a white guy? The Indian cliché family is not going to stand for it. How she hides, runs, and gets her bit of the world is all, "Bend it Like Bekham" is all about. Wait a second, did you think than the movie is a serious melodrama? Hell No! It's an out and out comedy. The comic scenes are extremely hilarious and make you laugh and enjoy the good times melt on the big screen. This movie was surprisingly great, when my cousin brought this film I thought typical chick flick, but it is for some reason a great film. This is a must see film.

"Bend it like Beckham" is a film about dreams, more specifically about the dream of Jess (Parminder Nagra), a young teenager who would love to play soccer as well as her idol, David Beckham. There are two problems, though. The first is the fact that she is a girl, and the second is her very traditional Hindu family.

The first problem proves to be easily surmountable, as Jess meets Jules (Keira Knightley), a girl who happens to play in the local soccer team. Jules introduces Jess to the coach of her soccer team, Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). Despite some initial skepticism, Joe incorporates Jess to the team, after a great try out.

Unfortunately, Jess cannot share her happiness with her family. Her parents are immigrants from India, and even though they have lived in England for a long time they still cherish their old traditions. Of course, and according to them, a good girl shouldn't play soccer: she should think about getting married :)

As a result, Jess hides the good news from her father (Anupam Kher), mother (Shaheen Khan) and sister (Archie Punjabi), and begins to play soccer with her new team. As you can imagine, keeping her family from finding out the truth will be quite difficult and hectic. Meanwhile, we will learn some things about cultural differences, friendship, love and (why not?) soccer.

On the whole, I highly recommend this movie, even if you aren't that much into soccer. It is very entertaining, but it also helps you to reflect on our increasingly multicultural societies. I specially liked the overall positive message, and I would like to recommend this movie to you and your family. It is a winning goal :)

Belen Alcat

This charming little movie combines sports, young love, and family conflict to make an utterly entertaining comedy/drama. Jess (Parminder Nagra) dreams of playing professional soccer and must hide the fact that she plays on a girls' team from her Indian family. They want her to settle down with a proper Indian husband and be a traditional wife. Teammate Jules (Keira Knightley) introduces Jess to a new world of fun, but they are both attracted to their handsome coach (Jonathan Rhys-Myers).

The wonderful Miss Nagra is quite sweet and convincing as the footballer who wants to be as good as her idol, David Beckham. The actors who play her stalwart family are also wonderful and funny. Rhys-Myers gives a good performance as the vulnerable coach, but Knightley, while enthusiastic, tends to overact and is less convincing. If you love soccer, you'll certainly enjoy all the scenes on the pitch. If you like romantic comedies, this is for you, too. A funny, poignant movie.

This movie is about Jess Bhamra, an eighteen-year-old Indian girl who dreams of playing soccer (football) as well as her idol, real-life footballer/soccer star David Beckham. Oppurtunity comes knocking at Jess' door when Juliet "Jules" sees Jess playing soccer in the park, and gives Jess the oppurtunity to play with a girls' soccer team. Jess is thrilled when she makes the cut. The one problem is that Jess' mom wants her to marry an Indian boy, learn to cook aloo gobi, help get ready for her older sister's wedding, and definitely NOT play football. However, Jess sneaks out to play with the team anyway. Jess and Jules become close friends, however, they find that they both like the same boy - their coach, Joe. While all of this is going on, Jess tries to keep her family convinced that she is not playing football. Will Jess' family discover that she has been playing football? Will Jules and Jess ruin their friendship over Joe? This is a fun movie to watch, and Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers were perfectly cast as Jess, Jules, and Joe.

I THINK THIS MOVIE SENDS A GREAT MESSAGE TO YOUNG GIRLS DISPITE WHAT OTHERS HAVE YOU TO BELIEVE. HER PARENTS WERE SIMPLY WRONG FOR NOT ALLOWING HER TO FOLLOW HER PASSION (WHICH IS SOCCER). PEOPLE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO FOLLOW THEIR DREAMS, CARVE OUT THEIR ON NITCH IN LIFE. AND I THINK THAT WAS THE MESSAGE THE MOVIE WAS SENDING.

This is just one of the many funny lines in the brilliant English movie about an Indian-English girl that defies her family and plays soccer all day. Her family does not want her to play the game but she loves it so much that she sneaks out every time to play for the team her friend plays on.

There are many mix-ups about love, romance and sexual orientation. This in a great blend with cross-cultural problems between English and Indian cultures.

All she wants is to be like her great hero David Beckham, but she is prettier. The movie ends great!

The underlying message I found in this movie was: It's OK to lie to and decieve your parents, if you think their wrong and you are right. Then if they find out, and punish and order you to stop, it OK to do it again as long as you think the action may lead to some good.
I was hopeing to see some intresting soccer moves, espicialy since this movie was named after a great soccer player, but the lead charachter in the movie is an Indian girl, David Beckham doesn't even have a speaking role in the movie, just a three second walk past the camera at the end of the movie.

The film "Bend it Like Beckham" is an engaging film about a teenaged Sikh girl, Jesminder 'Jess' Bhamra (Parminder K. Nagra), that loves to play soccer and her hero is the famous soccer player David Beckham, who once played for Manchester United. (Some archive footage of David Beckham is used in the film.) Unfortunately, Jess's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Brahma (Anupam Kher and Shaheen Khan respectively), don't completely approve (her mother especially) of Jess's continued participation in soccer as she has grown. Instead, they want her to learn more traditional Sikh family ways. A very memorable scene is the film's opening with Jess imagining herself playing with David Beckham, with television sports commentators interviewing her parents. However, in Jess's imagination, her mother begins to scold the commentators for encouraging her to play soccer. As the story progresses, Jess's friend Juliette 'Jules' Paxton (Keira Knightley) invites Jess to play on her team that is coached by an Irishman named Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). Though her parents object, Jess continues to play with the team and even manages to secretly go with them to play against a team in Germany; and that's when things change more drastically and unexpectedly for Jess, Jules and Joe.

Gurinder Chadha did a superb job of directing and writing "Bend it Like Beckham". (Paul Mayeda Berges and Guljit Bindra assisted in its writing.) Parminder K. Nagra's acting was wonderful, as was Shaheen Khan as her mother in the film. Other memorable characters include Pinky Bhamra (Archie Panjabi), Mel (Shaznay Lewis), Jules' mother Paula Paxton (Juliet Stevenson), her father Alan Paxton (Frank Harper) and Jess's friend Tony (Ameet Chana). Though the film received no Academy Award nominations, it was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy Motion Picture. It was also nominated for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film by BAFTA. Overall, I rate "Bend it Like Beckham" with 4.5 stars rounded to 5. It is a thoroughly entertaining and engaging film that people of any age can enjoy.

I really liked this movie.
It was funny, charming, and aspiring.
Yeah it's been done before, we've seen umpteenth movies like this, but this movie rocked anyways.
The indian family was very funny, although I didn't understand every single word they said because of the heavy british accent along with the Indian accent, they were funny.
My favorite part was when the cell phones were ringing and all the Indian old ladies were checking their phones..it looked odd..but funny.
This movie kind of reminded me of "Real women wear curves", breaking that family tradition and cycle to follow your dreams whatever they may be.
I noticed that the same girl who was in Pirates of the Carribean was in this too....she looked ANOREXIC!
The girl could hide behind a matchstick....hoola hoop in a cheerio...she was beyond RAIL thin!
Someone, get that girl a sandwich!
I didn't know anyone else in the cast but her, but everyone did great in their roles.
A very aspiring story for the family to watch asides from some minor adult themes.
Recommended.