by Dennis Delorean

Created on: July 21, 2010

Most of the critics who saw Bend It Like Beckham really liked it. Kenneth Turran of the Los Angeles Times said the film had a lot of humor and “a sense of milieu that is the result of knowing the culture intimately enough to poke fun at it while understanding its underlying integrity.” Meanwhile, the BBC said that “Beckham should be proud to have his name on such a great film,” giving it 4 out of 5 stars. Even Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 85%, where it only received 22 rotten reviews. This surprised me very much, because I failed to enjoy the film; I found it utterly predictable yet unbelievable with mediocre acting, way too much focus on the girls playing football in their tight tees and short shorts and little in the way of meat. Although it focused on the culture clash of

Punjabi Sikhs and white English people, it never really delved deeply into that clash, instead making superficial references to problems arising from this clash.

The plot, as I said, is predictable. Jess (played by Parminder Nagra) is a gifted footballer who plays around with the boys in the neighborhood until Jules (Keira Knightley) shows up and convinces Jess to come play on her team. Of course, Jess’ parents are dead set against this and forbid her to play, but she does anyway.

Meanwhile, the coach, Joe (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) , is naturally handsome and both Jess and Jules develop crushes on him. However, he fancies Jess, and they kiss at a tournament in Hamburg. Jules finds out and their friendship takes a nosedive.

As all this is going on, Jess’ parents are busy preparing for Jess’ sister’s impending marriage. It’s to be a traditional Sikh wedding. However, a problem arises – the wedding falls on the same day as Jess’ team’s final game for the winning title. Whatever shall she do?

Gee, I wonder. I won’t tell you what ensues, mostly because I’m sure you’ve already guess.

Director Gurinder Chadha must have been working with a weak script, because the dialogue sounds phony and everything that happens seems to be more of a Lifetime Movie of the Week rather than a full length dramedy. We see sexism in the football playing scenes as the camera focuses more on the girls’ bodies than their feet, and we see closet homosexuality rear its ugly head in one of Jess’ friends. None of the characters, in fact, seem fully realized or three-dimensional; rather, for example, Jules makes the same choices as you’d expect any teen-aged girl to make and Jess as the rebellious teen is a formulaic caricature you can find in almost any coming-of-age film.

I’m honestly surprised so many critics liked the film. As someone with a BA in film theory, I saw right through its “charm,” instead finding it boring, humorless and sexist.

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