Bend It Like Beckham DVD > Reviews > Shallow froth

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Story	Satisfactory
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Unmemorable
How does it compare to similar films?	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Undemanding
Disadvantages:	No depth

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I'd heard a lot about Bend It Like Beckham before I saw it, and unfortunately the vast majority of it was very critical, claiming it that it was naive, bland and very, very shallow. The first comments I'd seen had indicated that it was enjoyable and worth checking out, but when the cynics had got their hooks into it they'd pronounced it a disappointment and lacking in any depth.

It's hard to avoid your views being shaped by what you've read but I did my best and I have to say that BILB ain't half as bad as it's been made out to be. That said, it isn't by any means a masterpiece and certainly doesn't have too much depth. However, that ain't necessarily a bad thing and it's wise not to expect too much from such films.

BILB has no pretensions really to be anything more, although it does carry quite an interesting storyline. It could have been much, much more than it eventually turned out to be, but there's no reason why you should demand perfection.

BILB is a lightweight, British comedy with much appeal. It's set in the same sort of settings that made Two Weddings And A Funeral such a hit, and I have to say that the Brits' sense of intimacy, sincerity and low key affairs is something that Hollywood could do well to learn from. It's about Jesminder 'Jess' Bhamra, a young Indian girl from Hounslow in London who has a talent for football and joins up with a local women's team. Unfortunately, her parents aren't keen on this new interest and order her to abandon her chums and settle down with a nice Indian boy. She befriends Jules Paxton, a white girl, whose protective mother has similar prejudiced views about women football and would prefer to see her daughter pursue more standard interests.

BILB's main themes are the criticism of prejudice in all its guises, and so you get lesbianism, homosexuality, race and boy/girl stereotypes, all thrown in quite lightly and airily. However, there's nothing much more on show here than a crass denunciation of prejudice and stereotypes as inherently nasty and liberal tolerance as inherently nice. There are some obvious statements here of what is good and what is bad and the themes are never really developed or explored in any meaningful way. Much more could have been made in these themes and it would have been helpful if they had been explored in anything resembling a three dimensional manner. It's all cartoon and cardboard cut out stuff and there's never an attempt to do much more than just scratch the surface. The stereotypical Indian family is only sketched and it's disappointingly thin.

It would have been difficult in the time available, to be honest, to attempt much more, but it's still an opportunity missed.

However, if one puts that aside, BILB does have a lot going for it and is easy to like. It's difficult to love or even admire, but liking is quite manageable.

One is forced to call to mind the easy going nature of Gregory's Girl, and there are many similarities, although this is much more professionally realised.

The combination of women's football and Indian women in a white man's world is an interesting trick which makes BILB significantly different to many other Brit flicks and at least an attempt is made to make some intelligent conclusions.

The twin leads are Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley (who was in Pirates of the Carribean), and they do turn in reasonably good performances to say they have so little experience, and there's a decent enough cameo from Juliet Stevenson, but the whole lot is insistently teenage in outlook, with a number of the members of the Indian family in Eastenders in the cast. Altogether the gang do quite well, and are believable, although there are no real stand out performers, but BILB is about comfortable ensemble playing without any barbs or challenges.

Surprisingly, the football scenes are quite well staged and played, and you can genuinely believe in it, although there's nothing here that's as good or as funny as Jimmy Grimble, which is a much superior film, boasting many of the same qualities as BILB, with few of the deficits, although it enjoyed far less hype.

You get the standard 'It all works out in the end...' feel about BILB, and you know that Jess will end up making it to soccer school in the States, and the inevitability of it all always prevents you really identifying with things too much - it's all too easy and obvious for me.

Demanding is definitely not the word, but frothy, light and appealing could be.