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'Bend it Like a Beckham'

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Starring: Keira Knightley, Parminder Nagra
Director: Gurinder Chadha
MPAA rating: PG-13 for language and sexual content
Running time: 112 minutes
Release date: April 4
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By Desson Howe
The Washington Post

Posted: April 4, 2003

"Bend It Like Beckham" is a ball-juggling charm, a multicultural Cinderella tale about a female teen-ager in South London who dreams of goal-scoring glory.

She's Jess Bhamra (Parminder Nagra), a British girl of Indian descent who tries to emulate the swervy kicks of her idol, professional soccer player David Beckham. Her bedroom is a virtual shrine to the Manchester United professional, and she frequently speaks to posters and pictures of Him about her life.

Jess is hardly in step with the traditional attitudes of her Sikh Punjabi family. Her mother (Shaheen Khan) and shopaholic sister Pinky (Archie Panjabi) consider a woman's place to be directly in front of the stove, scrambling for the curry powder and chickpeas.

"Anyone can cook aloo gobi," responds Jess (who at one point juggles a cabbage with her feet behind her mother's back). "But who can bend a ball like Beckham?"

When Juliet "Jules" Paxton (Keira Knightley), another soccer player, sees Jess' abilities and introduces the elated teen to her soccer coach, Joe (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a dream becomes reality.

Without asking her family's permission, Jess begins playing for the Hounslow Harriers. Naturally, she plays in Beckham's position, "up front on the right." But inevitably, the family discovers Jess' secret.

The battle between old-world values and modern self-realization comes to a head when Pinky schedules her wedding day at the same time as an all-important soccer tournament in Hamburg. Jess has a painful choice to make.

The scenario, which includes a romantic rivalry for Coach Joe's heart between the two girl players and the usual climactic sports finale, is certainly overfamiliar, even cheesy. But there's a deeper dimension to everything. This movie's about, among many things, respect for both cultural pride and multiculturalism; old values and contemporary individualism; sexual tolerance; and of course the right of women to play sports. At the heart of it is Nagra, an engaging sweetheart with a great pair of feet.

Director Gurinder Chadha, a Sikh Punjabi who also made "Bhaji on the Beach" and "What's Cooking?" and co-wrote "Bend It" with Guljit Bindra and Paul Mayeda Berges, obviously has had similar family experiences. There's a great sense of fun in the cultural collision between Indian and British lifestyles -- often within the same person.

As in another audience pleaser, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," ethnic characters are treated with such warmth and sympathy they transcend the tight boundaries of cliche. Thus, when Mrs. Bhamra complains that no girl should be seen showing her bare legs to 70,000 people like David Beckham does, it's amusingly real. What Mrs. Bhamra doesn't understand is that she's the grumpy parent in a fairy tale. She should realize that Jess lives about six inches above the ground, and if anyone is likely to realize a dream -- and maybe even bump into You Know Who -- it's her daughter.

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