Bend It Like Beckham (2003)

It's really refreshing to re-visit this film, 16 years later, lots of know British actors, the most famous of course being Keira Knightley. Perhaps football has moved on slightly for women and some cultural traditions too, but I'm sure both still have a relevance.

We think the end is predictable. The film is not really modern. We learnt about their religion and their way of living. This film is pleasant, nice to watch. However, it is very slow, there is not a lot of actions and they are very repetitive. This comedy is humoristic and fun. This movie claims the cause of the women, Jess searches to improve in a boy's sport. It breaks the receive idea. The movie fights against sexism. Besides, it shows the culture shock between two cultures: the British Christian and the Indian Sikhs, whose are minority in England.

I love this movie a lot. The story takes place in Europe where an Indian girl, Jess is obsessed to play football but her parents would not let her play. Her friends Jules and Tony and her coach Joe convince her to play football. Before watching this movie I thought football was boy's games but after watching this movie I am so interested in football. I suggest everyone to go for this movie.

Eighteen year old Jess dreams of playing football like her hero David Beckham even though her playing is limited to having a kick-around in the local park. Here she is spotted by Jules; who plays for the local women's team. Jules tells Jess that she should try out and she quickly impresses Joe, the coach. She is invited to join the team but there is a problem; her Sikh family expect her to go to university and marry a nice Indian boy not 'waste her life' playing football. She tells her parents that she is going out to a job but it isn't long before they learn the truth. She manages to continue to play and Joe thinks that both Jules and Jess have what it takes to go to the top in the women's game. As well as the drama about the football there is confusion when Jess's family fear she is seeing a white boy, Jules' mother thinks she is a lesbian, Jules and Jess fall out because the both like Joe and Jess's sister is getting married… inevitably the wedding clashes with the football final that is due to be watched by a talent scout from America.This film is a lot of fun even if the basic plot isn't the most original and most viewers won't be surprised at how the story works out. It does bring some interesting twists to the genre and the fact that Jess is a Sikh allows some stereotypes to be played with in a gentle rather than offensive way. There is more humour provided by Jules's mother as she is embarrassingly keen to show how open-minded and unprejudiced she is… right up until the thinks her daughter might be a lesbian! The cast does a solid job; Parminder Nagra is really good as Jess and Kiera Knightly is equally impressive as Jules. The rest of the cast is pretty good too. The football scenes are decent enough; I enjoyed the way the scenes from the final match were intercut with scenes from the lively wedding party. Overall I'd recommend this to anybody wanting a decent feel-good film with a solid enough story and plenty of laughs.