DVD Movie Rating for: Bend It Like Beckham

4 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Bend It Like Beckham

Who wants to cook Aloo Gobi when you can bend a ball like Beckham?

A comedy about bending the rules to reach your goal, Bend It Like Beckham explores the world of women's football, from kick-abouts in the park to freekicks in the Final. Set in Hounslow, West London and Hamburg, the film follows two 18 year olds with their hearts set on a future in professional soccer. Heart-stopping talent doesn't seem to be enough when your parents want you to hang up your football boots, find a nice boyfriend and learn to cook the perfect chapatti.

DVD Production Details of: Bend It Like Beckham

Starring: Parminder K. Nagra, Keira Knightley

Director: Gurinder Chadha

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Rated:
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Video

DVD Release Date: September 30, 2003
DVD Features:
Commentary by director and co-writer

Theatrical trailer(s)

10 deleted/extended scenes

"Who Wants to Cook Aloo Gobi?" featurette

"The Making of Bend It Like Beckham" featurette

Music video

Outtakes

Aloo Gobi recipe

Widescreen anamorphic format

Bend It Like Beckham Easter Eggs

None

Cast of the movie: Bend It Like Beckham

• Parminder K. Nagra .... Jesminder Bhamra
• Keira Knightley .... Juliette Paxton
• Jonathan Rhys-Meyers .... Joe
• Anupam Kher .... Mr. Bhamra
• Archie Panjabi .... Pinky Bhamra
• Shaznay Lewis .... Mel
• Frank Harper .... Alan Paxton
• Juliet Stevenson .... Paula Paxton
• Shaheen Khan .... Mrs. Bhamra
• Ameet Chana .... Tony
• Pooja Shah .... Meena
• Paven Virk .... Bubbly
• Preeya Kalidas .... Monica
• Trey Farley .... Taz
• Saraj Chaudhry .... Sonny
• Imran Ali .... Gary
• Kulvinder Ghir .... Teetu
• Harvey Virdi .... Teetu's mum
• Ash Varrez .... Teetu's Dad
• Gary Lineker .... Himself
• Alan Hansen .... Himself
• John Barnes .... Himself
• Adlyn Ross .... Elderly aunt
• Shobu Kapoor .... Polly
• Zohra Sehgal .... Biji
• Ahsen Bhatti .... Nairobi Grandson
• Tanveer Ghani .... Video man
• Nina Wadia .... Wedding Guest

Photo Gallery of the movie: Bend It Like Beckham

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Reviews of the movie: Bend It Like Beckham

Bend It Like Beckham is true girl power. This glorious comedy centers on Jess (Parminder Nagra), an Indian girl born in England whose only desire is to become a football--or, as we say on this side of the Atlantic, soccer--star like her idol, David Beckham; but her traditional family refuses to even consider it. With the help of her new friend Juliet (Keira Knightly), Jess secretly joins a girls' team under the guidance of a male coach (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). As the team starts to gain some attention, Jess's secret can't be kept forever. The story of Bend It Like Beckham is so genuine and detailed that it transcends all the sports-movie formulas that it also fulfills with cheeky exuberance. Wonderfully acted, and written and directed with loving care by Gurinder Chadha (Bhaji on the Beach, What's Cooking?), this movie is pure delight from start to finish.

There has not been a better feel-good movie released this year than Gurinder Chadra's "Bend It Like Beckham." Made up of equal parts "Monsoon Wedding" (moving the Hindu family from India to England) and "Breaking Away" (substituting soccer for cycling and girls for boys), "Beckham" is guaranteed to have you leaving the theater lighter of heart and step than when you entered. At the heart of the film is Jess (Parminder Nagra), whose love of soccer horrifies her devout Hindu family and even endangers her sister's wedding into an even more traditional family. Encouraging Jess is her new friend Jules (Keira Knightley), star of the local girls' soccer team, who tells entrancing tales of professional women's soccer in America. But their shared attraction to Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), the team's brooding coach, soon causes trouble. Meanwhile, Jules' prattling mother (Juliet Stevenson) starts jumping to conclusions about what she perceives as her daughter's masculine behavior. It's no surprise to know that all these conflicts get resolved happily, with whipped cream and a cherry on top. That's the pleasure of a movie like "Bend It Like Beckham;" you go to see something that will make you feel good, and you get it, only seldom do you get it done so expertly. (The set of "Beckham" must have been a happy place to work, judging from the outtakes shown during the end credits.) "Bend It Like Beckham" takes us to its own sunny little world, and for two hours persuades us absolutely of its reality, and of the possibility of realizing all your dreams. What could be more fun than that?

Billy Eliot goes with Gregory's Girl to the Kumars at Number 42 to see What's Cooking at their Monsoon Wedding (Hounslow version). East is East and the family are Brassed Off, but Billy ends up On the Way to San Jose, instead of My Beautiful Law School, after doing the Full Monty On Any Given Sunday.

This movie touches a lot of bases. Yes, it's relentlessly cheerful, `safe' (whatever that means), relies strongly on comedy cliches such as ridiculous misunderstandings and pokes fun at easy targets such as people with strange clothes and funny accents (eg English soccer players), but it does have something to say about the clash of cultures, if only that the more dynamic one is likely to prevail, but itself mutate in the process.

There are some strong performances from the leads, particularly from Parminder Nagra as Jess the aspiring soccer star. Her eager enthusiasm is balanced by a regard for family feeling even when the viewer thinks `oh sod them'. Jonathan Rhys-Myers as her coach gives a measured performance (a long way from his crazed Steerpike in `Gormenghast') and Keira Knightley (only 16) is perfectly fine as Jess's friend and rival Jules. Jess's Mum and Dad, played by Shaneen Khan and Anupam Kher, veer on the edge of parody but they win our sympathies also. Juliet Stephenson as Jule's Mum puts in the only real slapstick performance, and is good enough to get away with it.

The planes lumbering overhead (this is flightpath country) are an interesting motif, for the airline industry seems to employ many of the characters. The last 30 years have seen air travel become a reality for almost anyone in developed countries, and for a substantial group in other places. Finding a Sikh customs officer behind the counter at Heathrow is now unremarkable, as is the spread of Indian food in England. Yet this cultural blending has its stresses and strains, as is evident from contemporary politics in a number of European countries.

A film like this takes an optimistic view - a girl from a Punjabi Sikh background can win the approval, or at least the consent, of her parents to her entry into a very non-traditional occupation - professional sport. There are probably lots of kids in her position who have deferred to their parent's wishes and limited their opportunities. Sometime tradition works - arranged marriages are often happy ones - but inevitably its scope must be reduced when surrounded by modern western culture (if there is such a thing - perhaps it's what Australians might term `Clayton's culture' - the culture you're having when you don't have a culture).

Anyway, as a film this was a pleasure to watch and I won't hold it against the director if I remember nothing about it in six months' time, as was the case with her earlier `What's Cooking'. No, that's not quite fair - I do remember the food. This time I think I'll remember the dignified Indian ladies in saris kicking a soccer ball around on the Hounslow Harrier's pitch. Actually, that was an out-take shown in the credits, but it summed up the movie somehow.