Bend it to Fit (Bend It Like Beckham (DVD))

Member Name: Whitehorse

Product:	Bend It Like Beckham (DVD)
Date:	07/06/02 (1351 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent soundtrack

Disadvantages: Everything else

My friend decided that her birthday treat would be a visit to the cinema. Initially she had decided on seeing The Time Machine which I thought I would probably enjoy so when she told me that another friend had prompted her to see Bend it Like Beckham my heart sank a little.
Unfortunately that is my general reaction to someone telling me that we are about to see a ‘light-hearted comedy’ (okay, okay I'm just a moody ol' Goth at heart). This time however I could make no excuses - friends birthday and all that. I mustered up some enthusiasm, popcorn and water and got comfortable.

Director Gurinder Chadha is perhaps best known for ‘Bhaji on the Beach’; not a film I’ve seen but I did hear good things about it. Bend it Like Beckham had distinct overtones of East is East for me. East is East was original, funny and typically British whereas Bend it like Beckham did not have that spark of brilliance.

The premise of the story is simple - Do you follow your dreams even when it may mean losing everything? How far will you bend the rules to get what you want?

Main character Jess comes from a traditional Sikh family and is expected to carry on the old traditions in the form of marriage to a good Indian boy and children. Jess however dreams only of football. Her hero (Beckham obviously) stares down from her bedroom wall and provides a good listening ear to Jess who tells him her wishes and woes.
Jess spends a great deal of time kicking the ball around the park, unbeknown to her parents. One day she is spotted by Jules who plays on a women’s football team and Jess is delighted to try out for the team. From here she discovers that a woman really can be a professional footballer if she goes to America. Her dreams begin to become reality but her family are a constant obstacle. Love interest is provided in the form of the coach ‘Joe’ (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) who both my friends drooled over (too y
oung to do it for me I’m afraid).

The film then spends the next two hours ramming the point home about how much Jess wants to play football and how much her family are against it. I think I’m supposed to care...

The film has it’s moments - there are some nice but occasional one-liners and Juliet Stevenson (who I adore) does a good performance as the typical southern housewife who never sees much outside white middle England. Another definite plus is the soundtrack which is excellent. This really comes into it’s own towards the end of the film with some sassy Bhangra and wild dancing at a Sikh wedding. I’ve had a quick look on the internet and it does seem as though a soundtrack cd is available. The mix of east and west pop music is the one thing that really works in the whole film.

Parminder Nagra seems perfect for the part of Jess and I enjoyed her performance - definitely something I can’t say about Keira Knightley who seemed utterly wooden. Honestly speaking she reminds me too much of Anthea Turner! Unfortunately there seemed to be quite a few characters such as the bitchy friends of Jess who were your typical ‘straight out of acting school’ types who plainly couldn’t act. Nothing puts me off a film quicker than bad acting. This is a shame because the majority of the cast were talented - they are badly let down by those that aren't.

Overall I though the script and story poor and contrived. The humour has all been done before, either with East is East or TV’s Goodness Gracious Me and the like - and they did it a whole lot better. I loathed the fact that they made main character Jess use the title of the film twice - as if the audience were too stupid to get it the first time. I also hated the fact that there seemed no originality. The tension in the film one assumes comes from our involvement in Jess’s desperate desire to live her passion - unfortunately des
pite Parminders great performance with what she had, the script just doesn’t make me care enough. It’s just all to obvious what’s going to happen.

Another irritation was that it felt as though this film was trying to touch on every single ‘issue’ in society just to make it marketable. Now I love movies that really challenge viewers to move out of the box and question their beliefs and opinions. What’s more I believe these kind of movies are important to get the world to wake up to the fact that we aren’t all white, straight, thin and beautiful. However Bend it Like Beckham just seemed to throw every issue in that it could think of just for the sake of it. Obviously race and the generational gap experienced by a young Asian girl and her traditional Sikh family are explored but I felt that other issues were dropped into the plot because it was easier to do that than actually write a decent script which gently examines the motives and emotions of the characters involved. Instead of being controversial it was - again I say contrived.

I guess I shouldn’t be too harsh in that your average ‘feel good’ movie doesn’t often require too many braincells to be enjoyed. I didn’t expect it to be your arty thinking person’s movie. However when the jokes are old and storyline contrived and obvious it fails to be a feel good movie - it‘s just mildly irritating. How this film was hailed as one of the best comedies of the year I’ll never know.

The film has a 12 certificate. Running at just under two hours I personally thought the story could have been condensed as it became repetitive.

I wouldn’t bother watching it again - even if I were bored to tears on a Sunday afternoon.
I’d rather take a nap.

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