Review of The Film Bend It Like Beckham

The film Bend it Like Beckham (BILB) was created by Fox searchlight pictures in the year 2002. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha. Gurinder has not directed many major movies that people watch today but one of her more popular movies is the bride and prejudice. Gurinder has an Indian heritage that has definitely impacted the movie Bend it Like Beckham. I believe that the film BILB has many good actors for example; Parminder Nagra starring as Jessminda (Jess) the main character who felt a passion for soccer, Keira Knightley starring as Julliette Jess’s best friend and many other interesting actors. The film is designed to be viewed for all different ages ranging from young to old, this is a movie that you can sit down and watch with the family or watch by yourself. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to watch this incredible movie as it runs for 112 minutes.

This is the first time I have seen the film Bend it Like Beckham and I recommend it to people of any age. It is very easy to understand the different theme and storyline and it is also very educational and shows you how different stereotypes affect different people and their families. There are many different themes in the movie. The main storyline to the film is showing how two very young and brave woman fight to do the sport they love (soccer). They too young ladies had many speed bumps along the way both with their family and the people they hung out with. Both of thee girls overcame this big stereotype of soccer being a males sport. In the film, we also saw two very different cultures. Jess is an Indian girl and her parents wanted a more Indian life for her where she gets married to an Indian man and does all the cooking, cleaning, washing all jobs that were believed to be ‘women's jobs’. For jess, this was not the life she wanted. Jess wanted to be out playing the game she loves. Jess’ family definitely held her back from what she loved doing because of their Indian culture. Overall I believe this film is very easy to follow the storyline and has some great twists and I love how both girls were able to go and play for a semi-professional soccer team.

There are many different twists and turns in the storyline of the film all these affect individual characters in different ways. The storyline was good and it always kept me interested in what's going to happen next. I surveyed a few people and they agreed that this storyline is interesting and also keeps you guessing. The plot is very easy to follow

The main character in the film is Jess (the protagonist) she is mentioned a lot in the film. Along with Joe and Jules, they are the second most viewed characters in the film. Parminder Nagra does a great job at playing Jess as she has Indian heritage. All of the actors in the film played their roles very well. I believe that every actor embodied their character and did a great job at doing so. The main character Jess did an excellent job of making me feel like she actually wanted to play soccer with her parents playing the supporting role of stopping her from playing soccer, conflict in a movie is important because it adds to the film and makes it a lot more interesting. Joe Jess’ soccer coach plays a believable role that supports jess on her endeavours to become an able soccer player often challenging her parents on why she has to lead an Indian life. Joe became a likeable role throughout the film.

My personal view of BILB is high as it has a good storyline and uses the supporting roles to make the film more interesting, challenging the view that females should not play soccer is important as it is not right to think so. Some of the bad points of the film included the cheesy moments and easy to follow a plotline that did make the film predictable as about was going to happen. Another point that I didn’t agree with was the use of romance in the film it seemed unneeded at the time and didn’t help make the plotline of Bend it Like Beckham any better. Some strong points were the acting and dialogue between Jess and her parents, it was so believable it made me feel sorry for Jess and wanted her parents to accept her for who she is and that she is a different person compared to the rest of the family.

The main message of the film and its entirety was accepting people for who they are is important and that everyone is different, this was shown through Jess’ parents not wanting to let her play soccer even though that is what she wanted to pursue in life. The message was partly interrupted due to the film taking twists and turns but was shown and was clear from the start. I enjoyed BILB and feel like the film would be liked by most people who don’t mind some average acting an enjoy soccer related content.

In my opinion, people of a younger audience would enjoy BILB the movie did not include any incorporate scenes for younger children, violence or swearing to an amount that could or would concern younger viewers of the movie. I feel like it would be enjoyed by an age bracket of 11 to 13-year-olds as younger viewers may not like or get as much out of the film. The movie would be given an MPAA rating of PG as it is not exactly premature content but not enough to worry and scare young adults or older children. Bend it Like Beckham is a strong film that I would recommend to viewers who like soccer and want an easy watch that doesn’t have any twists and does not demand the entirety of your focus, as I have said I enjoyed Bend it Like Beckham that’s why I give it 7/10.