Bend it Like Beckham, the hit 2002 movie about two girls united by their love for soccer, is a film about feminism and staying true to your beliefs. Directed by Indian director Gurinder Chadha, it was a low budget film, having a budget of only 3.5 million dollars but grossing over 100 million dollars in the box office. It launched English star Keira Knightley’s career and inspired girls worldwide. Bend it Like Beckham tells the story of Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, who isnot permitted to play organized soccer. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton, who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.
Genre : Sport / Comedy
Age : 13+
My Rating : 7/10
Summary (Credit : Wikipedia) Jesminder “Jess” Bhamra is the 18-year-old daughter of British Indian Sikhs living in Hounslow, London. Juliette “Jules” Paxton is the same age and the daughter of a white English family. Jess is infatuated with football, but because she is a woman, her conservative family won’t let her play. However, she sometimes plays in the park with boys, including her best friend, Tony, a closeted gay man. Jules’ father meanwhile is supportive of her passion for football while her mother unsuccessfully tries to steer her more towards non-sporting girly activities.
Whilst on a jog through the park, Jules discovers Jess’s skills, befriends her, and invites her to try out for the local women’s football team, the Hounslow Harriers coached by Joe. Jess is extremely happy and excited about the tryouts, even though Joe is sceptical about a new player joining the team. After seeing Jess’s skills, Joe accepts her on the team and Jess lies to Joe about her parents being cool with the idea.
Jess’s parents eventually discover that Jess has been playing football behind their backs. They become more strict and forbid Jess to play in any more matches. The elder Bhamras are also distracted by their elaborate wedding plans for Jess’s older sister, Pinky. Thanks to the skills of Jess and Jules, the Harriers reach the finals of the league tournament. Unfortunately, the finals and Pinky’s wedding fall on the same day.
Joe pleads with Mr. Bhamra to allow Jess to play, but Mr. Bhamra refuses, which reveals that he does not want Jess to suffer the way he did when he was excluded from a cricket club because of being Indian. Jess develops an attraction toward Joe, and when the team plays in Hamburg and goes out clubbing, they’re caught by Jules when about to kiss. Jules also is in love with Joe, and this sours the two girls’ friendship, as Jules is adamant that she had told Jess about her crush. Jess’s lie is uncovered again when Mr. Bhamra sees a picture from Hamburg in the newspaper. Jess goes to Jules’s house to try to patch up their friendship, but Jules’s mother is misled and thinks they’re hiding a lesbian relationship.
Jess tries to accept life without football and throwing herself into Pinky’s wedding preparations, while Joe tells Jules that an American scout is touted to attend the final. Jules tries to convince Jess to play the final despite their now-tense relationship and Joe on the eve of Pinky’s wedding tries to convince Mr. Bhamra one last time.
Joe accepts that Jess is not allowed to play and the final begins without her. But at Pinky’s wedding Jess is miserable, so Tony convinces Mr. Bhamra to let Jess go. Having previously seen Jess play and somehow convinced by it, he reluctantly agrees, and Tony drives Jess to the game, where the Harriers are losing 1–0 with half an hour left. Jess and Jules equalize, and when Jess is awarded a free kick, she must bend the ball around the wall of players to score. She succeeds and the Harriers win the tournament. Jess and Jules are offered sports scholarships at Santa Clara University in California, which Jules tells her parents immediately, whereas Jess has trouble telling hers. Jules and her mother arrive at Pinky’s wedding so that Jules can celebrate with Jess. But when Mrs. Paxton accuses Jess of being a hypocrite and a lesbian, Jules grabs her arm and runs off in shame.
Jess has still not told her parents about the scholarship — she is afraid they might not allow her to go to the United States on her own. Tony, out of friendship for Jess, decides to lie to the family and tell them he is engaged to Jess as long as she gets to go to any college she wants. Jess reveals the lie and her mother blames Jess’s father for allowing her to play. Jess’s father convinces her mother to accept Jess’s wishes after telling her he doesn’t want Jess to suffer as he did. Jess flees to the football field to tell Joe of her parents’ decision. The two almost kiss, but Jess pulls away, saying her parents would object, and that although they had come far enough to let her go to America to play, she doesn’t think they would be able to handle another cultural rebellion from her.
On the day of Jess and Jules’s flight to America, Jules’s mother gives her daughter a football jersey and wishes her good luck, this being her way of telling her daughter that she has accepted Jules’s decision. The two are about to board the plane when Joe arrives and confesses his love for Jess. The two kiss and Jess agrees to sort out their relationship (and her parents) when she returns for Christmas. While at the airport, they see David Beckham with his wife Victoria, which Jules takes as a sign. At a short undisclosed time later, Jess and Jules send their parents a team photograph, and it is revealed that Pinky is pregnant. Finally, Mr. Bhamra is seen practicing cricket with Joe’s help.
My Thoughts :
I rate this movie an 7/10. It has Keira Knightley, my favorite actress in it which pushes it from a 6 to an 7. The plot was engaging. The characters weren’t especially grabbing and I found Joe annoying and overly snoopy, but I enjoyed the movie overall.
One of my main issues with the film is Tony’s proposal. In my opinion, it was unnecessary and just awkward to watch. It seemed spontaneous and not well thought through at all to me. Jess instantly rejects it and tells her parents the truth, so what was the point of that scene? If it was meant to display her and Tony’s strong friendship there were much better ways they could have gone about that.
My other, bigger issue is the love triangle between Jess, Jules, and Joe. Firstly, Joe and Jess make no sense together. They have nothing in common besides their love for soccer. All they talk about is soccer. They don’t know anything about each other. They aren’t even really friends. Plus, Jess has been raised to know marrying a white boy won’t make her parents happy, and she doesn’t seem like the kind of girl to throw it all away for a boy. This is a tired story of a person of color throwing it all away for a white person because it’s “true love”. I don’t believe it is true love. They only met a month ago and don’t know much about each other at all.
Originally, the script ended with Jess and Jules getting together in the end, which I completely support. They are friends, they talk about more than soccer with each other and seem like they would be a good couple. But Gurinder Chada, the director was afraid of upsetting traditonal Indian audiences and cut that from the story. In that case, there was no need for Jess to end up with Joe. I think a much better ending would have been Jess and Jules leaving England as strong independent woman who don’t need Joe anymore. Keeping him in the triangle just feels awkward and unneccessary. Keeping them all single would have been the best option.
Trivia :
Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley (Jess and Jules, respectively) both trained for their roles. The coach who trained them said Keira had talent and if he had trained her from age 8, she could have gone pro.
Keira Knightley was only 16 years old when she filmed it. Parminder was 25 years old and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Joe) was also 25. That’s almost a 10 year age gap.
Bend it Like Beckham was the first film to be screened in North Korea.
Jess’ Indian relatives, who attend Pinky’s engagement party and her wedding, were played by Gurinder Chada’s real life relatives. Chada herself appears in the film a few times but very briefly.
Jess wears #7 for the Hounslow Harriers, the number David Beckham wears for England and once wore for Manchester United. Similarly, Jules wears #9, in honor of Mia Hamm, a famous female soccer player.
Overall, Bend it Like Beckham is a good film with an interesting plot. I wish the director had been braver with her choices about the love triangle but it was 2002 so I can’t really blame her. It’s a nice, feel-good movie and I enjoyed it.
