A sorta fairy tale
Apr. 20th, 2003 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynReview of Bend It Like Beckham
It took a while for Bend it Like Beckham to get here, and then when it finally did, took me a while to get out to see it. But I needed a feel-good movie, and based on everything I'd read about what a huge hit it was in England, and the outstanding reviews it received here, I figured it would deliver the feelies without being too mechanical. One of the problems for me is that most American movies that are supposed to be "feel-good", and certainly plenty of foreign films, are so by the numbers rote and set up from the beginning that I never end up feeling good, but instead jerked around and hostile. Especially the modern romantic comedy, which has such a perfunctory set 'em up, knock 'em down feeling that I want to gouge out my eyeballs.
What I especially loved about Bend It was that it never loses sight of the humanity behind the fairy tale. It definitely is a fairy tale ending movie, but the ending feels earned, mostly because the choices all the major characters make are based on human feelings and human decisions. It never feels forced or scripted; in fact, many of the decisions that the main character makes are based on feelings of obligation, and they're not the kind of choices that are rewarded with fairy tale endings in most cheap and easy prefab movies.
Jess is a young Indian woman in the London suburb of Hounslow who is obsessed with David Beckham, a star footballer in England, and also by football itself, which she plays incredibly well. She's spotted playing one day in a park with her friends, and the woman who sees her talent invites her to join their women's amateur football team. Jules and Jess become fast friends and an excellent pair on the team. But the big problem is that Jess's family wants her to live a traditional life for an Indian girl -- get married, and go to school. Football is not a part of this picture, and her bewildered and frustrated parents cause her to lie about playing on the team because they won't hear of her wasting her life in this incredibly unfeminine manner. Things are also complicated by the fact that she is hot for her white coach, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who is just unbelievably hot, and Jules also has a thing for him; Jules's mother , who is disappointed in her daughter's unfeminine lifestyle, becomes convinced that Jess and Jules are lovers after they have a spat over Joe (Meyers's character). I really loved Jules's dad, though, because he encourages his daughter in her love of football; he's definitely not the typical loutish Brit dad.
While all this is going on, Jess's sister is supposed to be getting married, and all kinds of hijinx ensue over the course of the movie. But what I loved was that none of them ever felt like scripted hijinx. Everything here felt like real life, from the misunderstandings to the reactions of families to the role reversals and changes of heart. All Jess wants is to play football, and she knows she has a shot at a bigger career, and everyone else can see her potential in so many other endeavors that it gets in the way of her own vision of her future. Joe's had to give up his goals because of injury, and he knows Jess has potential (and that it's not his personal interest in her that's making him find that) for great things in sport, and he doesn't want to see her lose her own shot because of the expectations of her family. But to Jess, not hurting her family is equally important. It was so refreshing to see someone who wanted to break out of the roles of her cutlure, while at the same time admiring and loving her parents, and respecting their culture even as it stifled her dreams. There are no simple answers -- even when her father finally breaks down and lets her go to an important match, he does so out of his own desire to see her stop being unhappy, not because he believes in what she is doing or wants her to play. It still takes him quite a while to recognize the value in Jess's choices, and when people finally understand where she's coming from, it's because she's earned it.
Most American movies would have made the developing romance between Jess and Joe the main focus, but here it's carefully kept realistic and in the background -- it's the secondary complication of her life, not the primary one. And she doesn't make her choices so she can be with him, even when he no longer has to follow the rules that he can't be involved with his players. She makes her choices to support her family and show them love and respect, not for some dramatic romantic effect that forgets the values and interests of others. Jess is in a moral quandary, and the movie never forgets that -- and handles it with wonderful humor. I laughed constantly through this, at its lovely subtle jokes about modern Indians in Britain and their antipathy towards "the English" (whites), at the speeches her mother made about becoming a real Indian girl, at everything. At one point when Jess literally faces her demons during a penalty kick at an important match to an aria, I thought I'd choke from laughing. (And it also left me with a burning desire to attend an Indian wedding; man, that looked like fun and very, very cool.)
It's just a delightful, funny, warm, and touching movie wthout ever once being manipulative or cloying. The girls are never less than attractive just because they want to play sports (in fact, one man at her sister's wedding is quite hot for Jess, but she's not interested), the characters are never less than human (I especially loved Jess's father, who doesn't really want a future for his daughter like his own, but doesn't quite understand how to make that happen for her), and the relationships are real and complex. There were a couple scenes I thought for sure were going to hit my humiliation squick, and instead they morphed into something far different than what we think they will be, just because they're character-based rather than some rote delivery of the standard revelatory or discovery embarassment scenes we're used to getting.
If the movie is still playing in your city, and you didn't go see it because it sounded like some standard woman trying to break into male sports thing, or a strange British comedy, or the title baffled you (it refers to Beckham's ability to twist the ball around in a kick), give it a go -- especially if you're in the mood for a feel-good comedy that doesn't jerk your strings. (And besides, again, Meyers is hot, hot, hot -- age is making him far prettier than I ever saw him as before...he's skinny as all get out, but phwoar, he's hot!). It's a total fairy-tale movie, but its ending is well, well deserved.
It took a while for Bend it Like Beckham to get here, and then when it finally did, took me a while to get out to see it. But I needed a feel-good movie, and based on everything I'd read about what a huge hit it was in England, and the outstanding reviews it received here, I figured it would deliver the feelies without being too mechanical. One of the problems for me is that most American movies that are supposed to be "feel-good", and certainly plenty of foreign films, are so by the numbers rote and set up from the beginning that I never end up feeling good, but instead jerked around and hostile. Especially the modern romantic comedy, which has such a perfunctory set 'em up, knock 'em down feeling that I want to gouge out my eyeballs.
What I especially loved about Bend It was that it never loses sight of the humanity behind the fairy tale. It definitely is a fairy tale ending movie, but the ending feels earned, mostly because the choices all the major characters make are based on human feelings and human decisions. It never feels forced or scripted; in fact, many of the decisions that the main character makes are based on feelings of obligation, and they're not the kind of choices that are rewarded with fairy tale endings in most cheap and easy prefab movies.
Jess is a young Indian woman in the London suburb of Hounslow who is obsessed with David Beckham, a star footballer in England, and also by football itself, which she plays incredibly well. She's spotted playing one day in a park with her friends, and the woman who sees her talent invites her to join their women's amateur football team. Jules and Jess become fast friends and an excellent pair on the team. But the big problem is that Jess's family wants her to live a traditional life for an Indian girl -- get married, and go to school. Football is not a part of this picture, and her bewildered and frustrated parents cause her to lie about playing on the team because they won't hear of her wasting her life in this incredibly unfeminine manner. Things are also complicated by the fact that she is hot for her white coach, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who is just unbelievably hot, and Jules also has a thing for him; Jules's mother , who is disappointed in her daughter's unfeminine lifestyle, becomes convinced that Jess and Jules are lovers after they have a spat over Joe (Meyers's character). I really loved Jules's dad, though, because he encourages his daughter in her love of football; he's definitely not the typical loutish Brit dad.
While all this is going on, Jess's sister is supposed to be getting married, and all kinds of hijinx ensue over the course of the movie. But what I loved was that none of them ever felt like scripted hijinx. Everything here felt like real life, from the misunderstandings to the reactions of families to the role reversals and changes of heart. All Jess wants is to play football, and she knows she has a shot at a bigger career, and everyone else can see her potential in so many other endeavors that it gets in the way of her own vision of her future. Joe's had to give up his goals because of injury, and he knows Jess has potential (and that it's not his personal interest in her that's making him find that) for great things in sport, and he doesn't want to see her lose her own shot because of the expectations of her family. But to Jess, not hurting her family is equally important. It was so refreshing to see someone who wanted to break out of the roles of her cutlure, while at the same time admiring and loving her parents, and respecting their culture even as it stifled her dreams. There are no simple answers -- even when her father finally breaks down and lets her go to an important match, he does so out of his own desire to see her stop being unhappy, not because he believes in what she is doing or wants her to play. It still takes him quite a while to recognize the value in Jess's choices, and when people finally understand where she's coming from, it's because she's earned it.
Most American movies would have made the developing romance between Jess and Joe the main focus, but here it's carefully kept realistic and in the background -- it's the secondary complication of her life, not the primary one. And she doesn't make her choices so she can be with him, even when he no longer has to follow the rules that he can't be involved with his players. She makes her choices to support her family and show them love and respect, not for some dramatic romantic effect that forgets the values and interests of others. Jess is in a moral quandary, and the movie never forgets that -- and handles it with wonderful humor. I laughed constantly through this, at its lovely subtle jokes about modern Indians in Britain and their antipathy towards "the English" (whites), at the speeches her mother made about becoming a real Indian girl, at everything. At one point when Jess literally faces her demons during a penalty kick at an important match to an aria, I thought I'd choke from laughing. (And it also left me with a burning desire to attend an Indian wedding; man, that looked like fun and very, very cool.)
It's just a delightful, funny, warm, and touching movie wthout ever once being manipulative or cloying. The girls are never less than attractive just because they want to play sports (in fact, one man at her sister's wedding is quite hot for Jess, but she's not interested), the characters are never less than human (I especially loved Jess's father, who doesn't really want a future for his daughter like his own, but doesn't quite understand how to make that happen for her), and the relationships are real and complex. There were a couple scenes I thought for sure were going to hit my humiliation squick, and instead they morphed into something far different than what we think they will be, just because they're character-based rather than some rote delivery of the standard revelatory or discovery embarassment scenes we're used to getting.
If the movie is still playing in your city, and you didn't go see it because it sounded like some standard woman trying to break into male sports thing, or a strange British comedy, or the title baffled you (it refers to Beckham's ability to twist the ball around in a kick), give it a go -- especially if you're in the mood for a feel-good comedy that doesn't jerk your strings. (And besides, again, Meyers is hot, hot, hot -- age is making him far prettier than I ever saw him as before...he's skinny as all get out, but phwoar, he's hot!). It's a total fairy-tale movie, but its ending is well, well deserved.
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Date: 2003-04-20 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-20 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-20 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-20 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-21 06:56 pm (UTC)Though, much as I love JRM, I loved that the film focused on football, Jess and Jules, and their struggles with their familes' expectations, rather than just being about them and 'the guy'. Such a nice change of pace!
Jill