Bend it like Beckham is an entertaining, funny, and heartfelt film about two young energetic girls growing up in London and their desire to play football (or Soccer) more than anything in the world. It is a coming of age story as well as one of friendships, crossing cultural boundaries, and most of all a story about love, particularly the love of football.
Jess or Jesminder Bhamra (Parminder Nagra) is a high school age Indian-English girl who loves to play football; her room is plastered with pictures of David Beckham, and she wears a jersey with his number and name when she plays in the park. Her traditional Indian parents let her play football when she was young, but with her sister Pinky's (Archie Panjabi) wedding coming up and university entrance exams around the corner, they decide it is time for her to grow up and stop playing games.
Jules or Juliette Paxton (Keira Knightley) is an average English girl with a love for football partly spurred on by her mother Paula's (Juliet Stevenson) loathing for the game and her father Alan's (Frank Harper) love for her. She watches Jess play in the park from afar until one day she invites her to try out for her all-girls football team, and friendship ensues.
When Jess comes to try out for the team she meets Joe (Jonathan Rhys Myers). Joe coaches the girls' team, and he sees promise in Jess, so he puts her on the team, but when her parents forbid her to be on the team, she lies about having a job and goes to practice anyway. Everything is going fine until one day Jess is seen with Jules at a bus stop by the future in-laws of her sister Pinky, Jules is mistaken for a boy because of her short hair and the wedding is called off even though the in-laws misunderstand what they see. In anger and frustration the secret of Jess playing football comes out and she is forbidden once again to play.
The misunderstanding is eventually sorted out and the wedding is on again, Pinky and her mother Mrs. Bhamra (Shaheen Kahn) immediately start preparing for the occasion and Mr. Bhamra (Anupam Kher) reminds Jess that she has family duties that will take her away from football and her new friends; essentially that she must grow up. The Indian engagement and wedding scenes are full of colorful clothes, traditional dancing, and other aspects of westernized Indian culture in England, all approached with an obvious love and affection for both cultures, and yet still funny and real. This even includes a wonderfully comical scene where a cell phone rings in a room full of people and everyone checks to see if it is theirs.
From this point the film kicks all the goals it needs, including a championship game, a romance that breaks cultural boundaries, and a chance for both girls to live their dreams and make their families proud. Believable and sincere performances from Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley make the characters of Jess and Jules, and their friendship, wonderfully flawed as only girls their age can be, especially about parents and relationships.
The soundtrack is certainly a great aspect of this movie and adds to the interplay between the Jess and Jules, who are not only very serious athletes, they are also young girls who are interested in boys, shopping, and clubbing. I found myself rooting for the friendship and spirit that these two girls represent on screen, because in the end they both want the same thing no matter what cultural background they are from.
Juliet Stevenson as Jules's mom Paula gives a memorable performance as a mother who desperately wants her daughter to be a lady and not a tomboy. When a misunderstanding about Joe arises between the girls Paula eavesdrops and thinks she over hears the two girls fighting about their relationship, and jumps to the conclusion that Jules is a lesbian. This climaxes in a scene where Paula yells at Jess in front of her sister and family who have gathered for the wedding.
I think that writer and director Gurinder Chadha took a chance with a simple story that sparkles with the real humanity and texture of life and friendship that can be so lacking in bigger budget flicks. Chadha not only lives and understands the culture of Indians in England, that's obvious, but I think she is able to translate and communicate her experiences with wit, clarity, and humor; we should greatly thank her for this little gem of a film.