This one had been on the To See list for weeks now and we were glad to have an opportunity this afternoon to see it. Bend It Like Beckham is an English film about Jesminder, the daughter of a Sikh family who idolizes David Beckham and is actually a decent footballer herself and her fight to gain acceptance of her desires by her parents.
A major subplot is the impending marriage of Jesminder’s sister and this, along with the heavily Indian cast, made me compare Bend to Monsoon Wedding, which I didn’t care for at all. Fortunately, this film is much better and the actors’ accents much more easily understood.
Parminder Nagra plays Jesminder and easily carries the weight of the film, well supported by Keira Knightley as the girl who recruits her to the soccer team and becomes, briefly, a romantic rival. Interestingly, though they both play the equivalent of high school seniors, Nagra was 26 at the time of filming and Knightley only 18. Nagra will next be gracing America with her presence in the TV series ER when the new season opens while Knightley will be all over the multiplexes this week as Orlando Bloom’s love interest in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Since I’d never heard of writer/director Gurinder Chadha before, I chalked up a bunch of poor transitions and editing choices to this being a first effort, but looking him up on IMDB showed this isn’t the case. Oh well. Seems to have done a better job on the script than direction but still adequate, including the climactic action cutting between a soccer match and an extremely energetic dance at the sister’s wedding.
Coming of age tales are quite common in movies and novels but can still be done well, as this film demonstrates. On the other hand, Hollywood turns out dreck like next week’s How to Deal and last year’s Scooby-Doo. Good to know that gems in a class with, say, American Graffitti are still being made.
Highly recommended
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