:
Parminder K. Nagra,
Parminder K. Nagra,
Keira Knightley,
more...
:
Gurinder Chadha,
Gurinder Chadha
see all cast/crew...
: 
: 20th Century Fox
: Foreign, Coming of Age , Sports Comedy, UK, Sports, Sports Comedy
: 112 min.
: English, Spanish, French
: English, Spanish
see additional details...
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An independent-minded young woman discovers the joys of football, much to her family's chagrin, in this upbeat British comedy drama. Jess Bhamra (Parminder Nagra) is an 18-year-old growing up in West London, where her family has taken every effort to stay in touch with its Indian heritage. Jess' father and mother (Anupam Kher and Shaheen Khan) are after their daughter to go to law school, learn to cook a traditional Indian dinner, and settle down with a nice Indian boy -- the latter of which is high on the agenda of her older sister Pinky (Archie Panjabi), who is soon to wed her longtime beau Teetu (Kulvinder Ghir). However, her family is unaware that Jess has a secret passion -- football (or soccer, as it's known in North America). While Jess' enthusiasm for football star David Beckham is obvious, given the fact his photos cover the walls of her room, her parents don't know that in her spare time she likes to play a friendly game in the park with some of the boys in the neighborhood. One day, while Jess and her pals kick the ball around, she meets Jules (Keira Knightley), who is quite impressed with Jess' skills. Jules plays with a local semi-pro women's football team, the Hounslow Harriers, and she thinks Jess has what it takes to make the team. Jess knows that her parents would never approve of their daughter playing football, so she doesn't tell them, and starts spinning an increasingly complex series of lies as she tries to keep up a double life as a student and a footballer. Jess soon discovers a number of her new friends have their own problems to overcome; Jules dreams of playing pro ball in America, but has to deal with her stubborn and disapproving mother (Juliet Stevenson), while Joe (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), Hounslow's Irish coach, still struggles with the disappointment of a career as a professional athlete which was dashed by a knee injury. Bend It Like Beckham was a significant box-office success in Great Britain and Europe, but didn't reach American theaters until nearly a year after it debuted in the U.K. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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| A blindsider, and a keeper
by mkaliher2
December 4, 2010 - 2:07 AM PST
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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I have to admit, I rented this film just to see Keira Knightley. I wanted to see if she was as gorgeous eight years ago (She was). But this film slapped me upside the head within the first few minutes. Any attempt to describe it is futile. Let's just say that despite the rather programmatic script and the set pieces--a running joke about a mom who's convinced her athletic daughter is a lesbian, and the cliche of the platonic gay friend who saves the day--somehow, it all works.
I had never heard of director Guriner Chanha before I saw this film, but she's good. And the remarkably talented Parminder Nagra absolutely stole the show as Jesminder Kaur Bhamra, a young Sikh woman in London struggling to assert herself in the adult world. Some tacky furniture, Indian girls who act like Jersey girls, and a crazy Sikh wedding help set up a near-perfect mix of humor and pathos that wins you over.
Knightley's role turned out to be a supporting one, but she was typically strong as Jes's best friend and sometime foe, contributing just what Nagra and Chanha needed. |
| light, fun, a little different
by alexjb
September 12, 2005 - 7:00 PM PDT
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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like other GC reviewers, i found bend it to be light and easy and enjoyable- more so than i expected, and more so than a standard american coming of age movie- at least partially because it focuses on tomboy girls and culture-shift issues with first-gen immigrant kids.
i also wanted to point out that the DVD specifically has some compelling extras - there's the commentary track, of course, the featurette, and then there's the director making aloo gobi in a restaurant kitchen while her mom and aunt watch and comment, which is really funny to see and makes you feel the sincerity behind the film's themes. |
| bend it bent me
by cubbycreatureb
November 23, 2003 - 2:41 PM PST
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2 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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| bend is at best an amusing but cheesy feel-good teen romance. i would normally consider a movie like this unwatchable, but i found bend to be very watchable because 1) it takes place in england, 2) it deals with the traditional values that an immigrant indian family places on its youngest daughter versus her desire to be like other english girls, which i found to be rather interesting 3) the sport being played is soccer, and 4) it stars parminder nagra, who is so darn beautiful (hey, it's ok, she's actually 28 years old, though she plays a teenager in the film) you immediately want to watch everything she's been in. i therefore recommend this film, but say don't expect anything more than a cheesy, fun, feel-good movie. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.07)
430 Votes
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