Chadha shows how the comedy game is played.
This is not a copy of the horrible My Big Fat Wedding, and nor is this a take on the excellent Monsoon Wedding. The trendy family tale of values clashing and values changing finds itself in this catchy titled film called Bend it like Beckham (the North American translation would be something like ‘Swing it like Woodsâ€). Director Gurinder Chadha not only comes up with a great name for a film, but she sketches a harmless, good natured comedy which is not without its faults, but manages to score at the moments when it really counts.
Bend it like Beckhamis sort of like the stock market, where one young adult’s stock rises on the football (a.k.a soccer) field and where her home life is the equivalent to the sucky part of growing up with house arrest. While her parents worship their god and do what parents do which is teach their kids to just say no, she worships the football legend with her bedroom shrine. What the player comes to symbolize is a freedom which is not available for girls in her traditional upbringing. This is a film about opposites, opposing views and opposites that attract with the real power coming from the relationship between Jess and Jules.
Surprisingly, this is a film that’s got the funk, and yes, even the male audience will find something to like about the picture, especially with some surprisingly nice camera shots which thankfully avoid stale shooting of sports and captures the fancy footwork on the field. You’ll like the symbolic penalty kick in the backyard with the items on the clothesline acting as blockers and you’ll enjoy the slo-mo penalty kick winner for obvious purposes. The real high note of the picture is the breath of fresh air honest character portrayals, however, the film does get a red card for a number of fouls. What was the deal with the annoyingly
fake to the eye moments with this lesbian thing and the forbidden unauthentic love between cultures. The ending, with a slo-mo juxtaposition is nicely realized showing the wedding and football game sequences as one with the added pleasure of Curtis Mayfield, but was it really necessary to tack on this big happy celebration of the irrelevant final goodbyes airport scene.
Bend it like Beckham follows a formula of predictability, which at times rewards the viewer with something fresh, the scar tissue could have become a poignant issue, but it gets side-swiped by the less important sillier ideas for comedy and romance. Hopefully, Chadha will get full exposure from these venture and return to her past filmic roots, which I heard was a lot more promising. Speaking of promising, the two female leads have got a good-looking career ahead of them. This is not a brilliant movie, it is a delightful film.
